mumbai a survey of health insurance policyholders has revealed a surprising lack of knowledge about the coverage among the insured the low level of insurance literacy relates to the most basic aspects of health insuranceof those surveyed 20 were unaware of the terms of the cover another 40 did not know irdai was the regulator and 90 inaccurately believe that only bills paid at the hospital are covered the survey was conducted by icici lombard and included both those who already own health insurance and those proposing to buy health insuranceeven among owners of health insurance policies the overall understanding of abbreviations used by the industry was low among existing policy owners 42 were unaware what tpa thirdparty administrator ncb no claim bonus or opd outdoor patient department stood forinsurance policies tend to have a lot of complex jargon which is difficult to understand by a layperson this is where insurance literacy comes into play the only way to accelerate financial inclusion and thereby insurance penetration in the country is by improving financial literacy said icici lombard general insurance ed sanjeev mantrithe lowlevel of awareness was despite 46 of the health insurance owners claiming that they purchased their policies completely own their own while 51 of intending buyers claim they are very confident about choosing a plan completely by themselveseven in motor insurance the level of awareness is not very high less than 25 of motor insurance policy owners fully understood terms such as idv insureds declared value zero dep zero deduction for depreciation and roadside assistance cover