Pune: The General Insurance Council has said that the insurance companies have earned premium income of Rs 7,124 crore in July 2020, a whopping 31 per cent increase in the premium category as compared to the last year revenues of Rs 5,667 crore.
Middle-class society was concerned about their health expenses in case they catch up with Covid-19. Therefore, during this period, several people preferred to get their individual health insurance cover. This is evident from the premium income earned by insurance companies in the country from the sale of health policies. The companies earned premium income of Rs 7,124 crore in July. Last year, this revenue was Rs 5,667 crore, which means the sector has seen a 31 per cent increase in the premium category.
At the same time, the health insurance sector is booming. Earlier, the number of customers taking company or group insurance was higher than individual health insurance. This time, premium income has increased by about 10.4 per cent. Health insurance premium income in July alone was Rs 18,415 crore, which was about 16,674 crore in the same month last year.
In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, several companies had announced a new insurance policy called COVID Protection Policy. This policy has received a great response across the country. Between July 10 and 31, about 4.50 lakh customers took health insurance. So far, 70 thousand policyholders have filed claims with the insurance companies and about Rs 700 crore has been disbursed against this claim.
As on August 14, about 1.15 lakh policyholders across the country had filed claims worth Rs 800 crore. The COVID Protection Insurance policy was launched in the market on July 10. This covers all the cost of Covid-19 treatment under the policy.
Meanwhile, with the increase in the number of health, fire and property insurers, the insurance sector has seen an uptick. Premium income rose 1.62 per cent in the second quarter. The combined premium income of insurance companies stood at Rs 56,342 crore in the second quarter.