Non-life and health insurance companies cannot deny a fresh policy to a covid survivor, confirmed two senior officials of General Insurance Council (GIC) of India, a trade body of general insurance and health insurance companies.
In fact, one of the officials has confirmed that the GIC will take action against insurance companies if they found insurers indulging in such practices.
“As of now, we are not aware of any insurance company denying health policies to corona survivors. If we come across any such practice, action would be taken against the insurer,” said the official of GIC.
A few media reports said that non-life and health insurers are not issuing new health policies to covid survivors.
Even life insurers have reportedly put such prospects on a three months wait period before issuing a fresh policy.
RM Vishakha, CEO and MD, Indiafirst Life Insurance said that there is no data that supports covid survivors are prone to severe health conditions. “We don’t want to inconvenience covid survivors without adequate data on health issues. So far, we have not witnessed any such trend. We cannot make subjective calls,” she said.
Manoj Kumar Jain, MD, Shriram Life Insurance said that while insurers have the right to ask questions to prospective clients, they could not deny claims based on assumption.
Currently, insurance companies deny a fresh policy if an individual has a serious medical condition like heart disease, cancer and so on.