Underlining the challenges faced by proliferation of private players in the insurance sector, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has said there is a need for affordable premiums for health insurance seekers. He was addressing a gathering at the Global Insurance Summit organised by Assocham in Mumbai on Wednesday.

“Financial inclusion especially of the semi-urban and poor population of the country is a challenge for insurance industry and micro insurance is an essential component of financial inclusion package,” he said. 

He said the insurance industry should be prepared to deal with any kinds of catastrophic losses when it comes to insuring against natural disasters. “The insurance companies should concentrate on exploring the world reinsurance markets so that the impact of heavy losses can be mitigated.”

Also highlighting the need to refurbish underwriting skills he said, “underwriting skills which got lost with the introduction of tariffs in the general insurance business have to be brought back to the non-life industry and for that insurance companies need to improve employee productivity through continuous professional development, in-house training programmes , advanced level training etc.

Mukherjee said companies must use advanced technologies to save costs and extend maximum outreach.
 
He also highlighted the need for an effective grievance redresssal system for policy holders. “While ombudsmen provide a dispute redressal mechanism, it is essential that the insurers themselves institute in-house grievance redressal mechanism where the policy holder is the centre of attention.”

The IRDA has set up a toll-free number for the same. Especially in the area of ULIP’s IRDA has come up with a number of regulations and guidelines.