Irdai allows life insurers to sell short term benefit-based Covid policies

Non-life insurers can sell both, benefit-based and indemnity-based short-term health covers

In a move aimed at providing insurance protection to a vast majority of people in the ongoing pandemic, the insurance regulator has allowed all insures – life and non-life – to offer short term health insurance policies specifically for covid-19.

According to the regulator, short-term health policy means any health insurance contract that has been issued for a policy term of less than 12 months. If a policy term is fixed at 12 months then it will not be short-term.

According to the norms, life insurers are generally not permitted to underwrite indemnity-based health insurance policies. Hence, the regulator has