As informed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), a study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research, on behalf of IRDA, and based on the survey of 30,200 respondents spread over 29 States and Union Territories, indicate that with regard to health insurance, the level of awareness is quite low since only 54 per cent of the households have heard about this product of insurance.
IRDA has initiated various steps, as indicated below, to enhance consumer awareness, as part of its multi-pronged approach of consumer education under the brand name Birma Bemisaal Campaign:
i) Sponsoring of consumer awareness seminars through consumer bodies on the subject of health insurance.
ii) Printing of posters on health insurance and portability.
iii) Publication of Handbooks on Health Insurance.
iv) Publication of comic series including Health Insurance.
v) Animation films of the comic series.
vi) Launching of Consumer Education website www.policyholder.gov.in.
As per IRDA, State/UT wise information is not available, however, company-wise details of number of persons covered under the health insurance for the last three is as under:
No. of Persons covered in Health Insurance Policy in ˜000
|
Name of the Company |
2009-10 |
2010-11 |
2011-12 |
| National |
14677 |
23963 |
27555 |
| New India |
6681 |
8164 |
12264 |
| Oriental |
5622 |
11945 |
17725 |
| United India |
10414 |
23190 |
25377 |
| Public Total |
37394 |
67263 |
82921 |
| Star Health |
132410 |
129038 |
78073 |
| Max Bupa |
0 |
47 |
215 |
| Apollo Munich |
383 |
897 |
3119 |
| Bajaj Allianz |
668 |
1022 |
1376 |
| Bharti AXA |
153 |
21203 |
515 |
| CHOLA MS |
4053 |
6781 |
10887 |
| Future Genarli |
358 |
346 |
245 |
| HDFC ERGO |
1010 |
1516 |
1162 |
| ICICI Lombard |
11434 |
18320 |
26713 |
| IFFCO Tokio |
47 |
1744 |
19997 |
| L&T General |
0 |
0 |
196 |
| Raheja Qbe |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Reliance |
1177 |
908 |
3126 |
| Royal Sundaram |
1469 |
3466 |
6274 |
| SBI General |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| Shriram General |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Tata AIG |
984 |
804 |
3288 |
| Universal |
161 |
187 |
285 |
| Private Total |
154307 |
186278 |
155474 |
| Grand Total |
191701 |
253541 |
228395 |
Keeping in view the fact that 85% of the work force is engaged in unorganized sector, the Government of India has introduced the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in 2008 to provide health insurance benefits to the BPL and poor workers. As on 8.3.3013, the coverage under the Scheme through active smart cards is 3,41,73,475.
