Health insurance for senior citizens: No clarity on implementation of 10% premium hike cap
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : A couple, in their 60s, bought a family floater health insurance policy from a private insurer in 2018. They never had to use it.
Still, their premium surged 20% to ₹49,874 in February 2024. It was ₹41,813 in February 2023. They were shocked to see the further rise in their premium in February 2025.
The insurer hiked it by 40% to ₹69,048. To be sure, an Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai) circular released in January capped insurers' annual premium hikes at 10% for senior citizens aged 60 years and above. "The insurers shall not revise the premium for senior citizens by more than 10% per annum," Irdai said in the circular.
It also specified two key scenarios requiring prior consultation: If an insurer intends to hike premiums beyond the 10% cap or withdraw an individual health insurance product for senior citizens. The circular mentions that insurers need to take steps in this direction "with immediate effect", but this does not seem to have happened. "Irdai, hereby, directs all general and health insurers offering indemnity-based health insurance products to senior citizens to take the following steps, with immediate effect," said the circular.
The two steps included the instruction not to hike the premium by more than 10% and to seek prior consultation from the regulator if necessary or withdraw a product offered to senior citizens. However, the reason for premium hikes crossing the 10% cap could be that the product pricing was filed before the circular came out. "Policyholders must know that wherever product pricing has been filed and approved by Irdai before the circular came out, the price increase for all policyholders will happen whenever their
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