Term insurance prices surged, health premiums stay unchanged in Q4: PolicyX

There was a significant jump in term insurance premiums, while prices of health insurance policies remained changed despite the continuous rise in covid-19 cases during the first quarter of the calendar year 2021, as per PolicyX.com’s Insurance Price Index.

Online insurance marketplace PolicyX had launched the price index in January that allows users to observe shifts and trends in the premium prices. The first edition of the index had shown that the prices were stable in the December quarter for both health and term plans.

During the March quarter, in the term insurance category, the price index surged 4.4%, indicating that the average price of term insurance premium rose to ₹21,913 in the index value. Out of total 10 insurance companies covered under the index, four insurance companies hiked their premium prices in the last quarter. The biggest jump observed in premium prices was about 19.0%, which was followed by 18.7%, 5.5% and the minimum was 2.6%.

The 10 companies covered under the index are Life Insurance Corporation of India, SBI Life, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential, Max Life, Bajaj Allianz Life, Aditya Birla Sun Life, Kotak Mahindra Life, Tata AIA Life and Canara HSBC OBC Life. According to the company, there are some indications that other insurance companies might also increase their term insurance premium prices in the near future. “As per our discussion with most of the insurers, term plan prices are likely to go up further. Fortunately, not all companies have affected the price increase so far. Customers who want to purchase a term plan should not postpone their decision further as they might land up paying 20% higher. The increase is due to the fact the re-insurers have increased their rates," said Naval Goel, founder and CEO, PolicyX.com.

The term insurance average price of ₹5 lakh sum assured went up to ₹15,553 and ₹1 crore has reached ₹27,150 during the last quarter. Meanwhile, despite the continuous spread of the covid-19 virus, there was no rise in premium prices in health insurance plans during the just-concluded March quarter.

The price index for health insurance remained constant at ₹24,206, reflecting no change in the average price for a ₹5 lakh sum insured and a ₹10 lakh cover of ₹20,781 and ₹27,271, respectively.

For the Health Insurance Price Index, PolicyX has chosen one public and five private health insurance companies in terms of their GWP earned as per Irdai’s annual report for 2018-19. The health insurance companies in the index are —The New India Assurance, Star Health and Allied, ICICI Lombard General, Bajaj Allianz General, HDFC ERGO General and Religare Health.

Source: Live Mint