The general insurance industry which includes standalone health insurers has received a go-ahead from the insurance regulator to collect health insurance premiums in other modes too. Currently health insurance premiums have to paid annually.
Given the premium ticket size, life insurance industry has always enjoyed various modes of premium payment, namely, Yearly, Half-yearly, Quarterly and Monthly. However, health insurance premiums had to be always paid in Yearly mode only. It was not a concern when the average premium used to be around Rs.5,000/-. But in the last few years, the industry has seen both sum insured and premium go up.
Earlier, the maximum Sum Insured used to be 10 lacs but today companies are offering covers of up to Rs.1 crore. Benefits such as lifelong renewal, recharge cover, worldwide coverage, dental coverage, second opinion, etc have increased the average premium ticket size to Rs.15,000. In fact the finance ministry revised the exemption limit for health insurance premiums to Rs.25,000 (earlier Rs.15,000) under Section 80D for the same reason.