Health insurance good news! You can now even change sum assured, premium payment time frame

Health Insurance: In the new health insurance policy issued by the IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority), a policyholder can now change his or her health insurance plan by changing the time frame for premium payments from annually to half-yearly or quarterly and can increase or decrease his or her sum assured in the policy with the passing of time. The industry insiders are of the opinion that it would enable the policyholder to hold the policy for a longer period of time and chances of discontinuing the health policy is expected to go down.

Speaking on the IRDA changes made in health insurance sector Puneet Sahani, Head of Product Development, SBI General Insurance told Zee Business online, “The minor modification window allowed by the regulator is a welcome step. This will enable minor changes in the product with a much faster approval route. The minor changes proposed to be allowed are expanding the Sum Insured range of the product, allowing additional premium payment terms (quarterly, half-yearly, etc.) and such other minor modifications. The customer shall stand benefited by such changes due to faster go to market option available due to the above.”

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Standing in sync with SBI General Insurance's Sahni, SEBI registered investment expert Jitendra Solanki said, "In health insurance plan, policy premium is not fixed. When you take the plan at a lower age, the premium might not be a higher amount. However, after 10-15 years, the premium may become a bigger amount which the policyholder may feel like a burden on his or her budgetary allocations. In such a case, it has been found that the policyholder tempts to discontinue the policy at a time when the utility of the policy is about to begin." He said that the changes in health policy now allow policyholders to change their premium payments from annually to half-yearly or quarterly and the policyholder is now allowed to increase or decrease the sum assured, which is a welcome step.