Five states contribute to 64% of total health insurance premium: IRDAI report

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and the NCT of Delhi together contributed about 64 per cent to the total health insurance premiums in 2022-23, as per the latest Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI)’s annual report.

With 29.5 per cent, Maharashtra featured at the top, followed by Karnataka at 11 per cent. Next in line after Karnataka is Tamil Nadu with 10 per cent, and Gujarat at 7 per cent. Barring these states, the rest of the states together contributed 36 per cent.

This shows that Maharashtra was almost at par with the nation’s health insurance premium numbers. General and health insurance companies settled 85.66 per cent of claims by policy count in 2022-23, but the amount was lower at 71.62 per cent in terms of the amount paid.

Life insurance collectors registered a growth of 13.81 per cent after collecting Rs 1,483 crore in 2022-2023  as against Rs 1,303 crore in the same period last year.  As far as settling claims is concerned, the private sector was ahead of the public sector.  In 2021-2022, LIC settled fewer claims this year at Rs 245 crores as opposed to 453 crore in 2021-2022.

Notably, the share of policies sold by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was higher at 35.81 per cent, compared to private life insurers at 30.13 per cent for women availing life insurance.

Out of 2.84 crore policies sold in the current fiscal year, 97.38 lakh policies were availed by women witnessing a decline of 0.5 per cent at 34.2 per cent.  As per the report, life insurance policies sold to women were highest in Karnataka at 44.23 per cent, followed closely by Kerala and Mizoram, while the number was lowest for Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, and  Ladakh.

The claim settlement ratio registered a slight dip in 2022-23 to 98.45 per cent as compared to 98.64 per cent in 2021-22. Both the LIC and its private sector counterparts reported lower claim settlement ratios of 98.52 per cent compared to 98.84 per cent in 2021-22 and 98.02 per cent, compared to 98.11 per cent in 2021-22 respectively.

The average amount paid per claim was Rs 30,087, with  Rs 70,930 crore meted out to over 2 crore claimants of life insurance. 56 per cent of the claims were settled cashlessly while another 42 per cent were paid out through the reimbursement mode.