India’s insurance sector regulator, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has released the draft guidelines to make insurance providers provide the service to citizens above the age of 65 years.

Under the current rules, it is not mandatory for the insurers to provide insurance cover to citizens above 60 years. The new guidelines would benefit India’s senior citizens as they will be able to obtain the benefits of insurance cover. The guidelines also include a draft for senior citizens who need special medical care.

The new rules will require insurers to provide all the information to the customers in a simple manner on a single page. The regulator also said that there should not be an exit age from the cover and indications are that the regulator will also ask the insurers to allow lifetime renewability of health insurance products.

IRDA also said that an insurer will not be allowed to refuse renewal of a health insurance policy only because the policyholder had made a claim in the previous one year. Health insurance should be made available to citizens to
65 years, and all medical claims must be settled within a month, according to the regulator.

It is also recommended that insurers offer products with policy term of at least 4 years and non-life insurance products should not be longer than 3 years. IRDA also said that the insurance holder should have access to treatment all over India in any hospital even if that is not in the insurer’s network.