August 17,2018:
On Thursday, Insurance Regulator IRDAI issued a circular directing insurers to cover the mental illness, which has reached serious proportions in India.
Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 which came into force from May 29 has made it mandatory to provide “for medical insurance for treatment of mental illness on the same basis as is available for treatment of physical illness”.
But to date, none of India’s 33 insurers has introduced a product that covers ailments such as depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, even though such covers are commonplace in many countries.
IRDAI has issued order stating that,“All insurance companies are hereby directed to comply with the...provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 with immediate effect.”
Health Insurance Firm Cigna TTK’s COO Jyoti Punja described it as a progressive step.
She stated that.“This will ensure a life of dignity to those who have mental health issues. We believe it will create awareness, acceptance, and inclusion of mental illness as any other physical ailment. It will ‘normalise’ diagnoses, by reducing associated myths and stigma”.
Mental health conditions have always been in the list of exclusions of health insurance policies.
Only exceptions to this have been the coverage of development conditions such as autism and Down’s syndrome by the National Health Insurance Scheme, and a few private schemes like Star Health Insurance’s cover for autistic children.
Source TOI
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