chennai despite a substantial decline in covid cases health insurers are unlikely to reduce the premiums to prepandemic times high medical inflation and one time cost impact due to covid are attributed as the major reasons for the health premiums remaining at the increased levelshowever the only respite for consumers is that health insurance companies may not hike their premiums further on account of incorporating mental illness coverage as mandated by the insurance regulatory and development authority of india irdairakesh jain ceo reliance general insurance said the medicalhospitalisation expenses have increased multifold in the recent times due to the longterm effect of covid outbreak along with medical inflation hence the premium will be impacted in the coming years as well he addeda report on health insurance had found that retail health premiums and group health premiums grew by 165 and 31 respectively in fy22 though it was primarily due to the pandemic creating a pull for health insurance products selective price hikes were also implemented during the previous year of fy21 besides annual medical inflation which was at 14 in 2021 the industry is also experiencing a onetime cost impact according to health insurance sources covid claims to the tune of more than 20000 crore has been paid by the industrymayank bathwal ceo aditya birla health insurance said no premiums were collected for these additional claims considering all of these factors it is unlikely that the premiums can go down when the industry is experiencing higher than anticipated claim costs he saidanand roy md star health allied insurance the chances of decreasing premiums will not arise due to high medical inflation even as the volume of claims have reduced post covid19 the three insurance companies which are offering mental illnesses in their health insurance policies have not increased the premiums for the coverage on mental illness industry sources said most insurance companies incorporate mental illness under the existing health policy covering expenses in the event of hospitalisationamjad khan director head employee benefits practice anand rathi insurance brokers pvt ltd said health insurance premiums would go up further with the inclusion of mental illness in health insurance policies but the increase is marginal and would vary from 25 in the net premium depending on how exhaustive is the coverage chosen under mental wellbeing he said the relevance of mental wellness being an integral part of a health policy has caught up especially post pandemic he added