IRDAI omits age restriction on health insurance for 65-year-olds in India: All you need to know

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Health Insurance New Rule: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has removed the age limitation to buy health insurance. Now, with this withdrawal, individuals would be able to buy new health insurance even at 65 years of age. Previously, this group was restricted from getting access to new insurance plans.

According to an IRDAI notification, insurers will have to come up with health insurance products that take into consideration the unique needs of demographic groups, especially senior citizens, students, children, and maternity needs. This directive encourages the broad scope of the products meant to target the variety of life stages and health needs of insurance companies. The insurance regulatory body has also made it mandatory for the insurance firms to introduce some policies to benefit senior citizens.

The insurance regulatory body has instructed to open special channels for the smooth and speedy disposal of claims and grievance redressal. In its quest to develop more humane and caring healthcare in India, the new regulations proposed by the IRDAI also pay heed to an increase in access to health insurance for those affected by severe medical conditions such as cancer, heart, renal failure, and AIDS. These diseases cannot be grounds on which insurance companies deny policies.

Further, the waiting period for mandatory pre-existing conditions has been reduced from 48 months to 36 months by IRDAI. After this period, all pre-existing conditions must be covered, as mentioned in the policy wording, irrespective of whether it has been disclosed at the time of policy initiation or not. The law also makes it illegal for insurance companies to deny claims due to pre-existing conditions after