You don’t want your health insurer showing up here

Are you planning to renew your existing health insurance, or buy a new one anytime soon? Then this list will make you rethink your health insurance plans.

Office of the Council for Insurance Ombudsmen, the body which looks at the complaints against insurers, has released the complaints disposal statement for various segments of the insurance sector, life, general and health, for the period 01.04.2023 to 31.03.2024.

Complaints against health insurers

One of the key pieces of information that this dataset gives is regarding the company-wise number of complaints filed against health insurers. We looked at that data and compiled the list of five worst offenders.

At number five in this list was The New India Assurance with over 1,600 complaints. Another public sector insurer, National Insurance, was at number four, with 2,200 complaints filed against it.

But the top three slots were occupied by private sector health insurers. Niva Bupa was at number three, with complaints against the company crossing 2,500. Care Health took the second spot in this not-so-great ranking, with 3,700 complaints.

However, the worst offender in 2023-24 was Star Health and Allied Insurance. The company took the top spot, with a shocking 13,308 cases in just one year.

Complaints entertained by Ombudsmen

The report from the Office of the Council for Insurance Ombudsmen also shared the data on all the complaints entertained by Ombudsmen. Now, if you look at this data, the picture changes a little bit.

When you look at the cases taken up by the Ombudsmen, Aditya Birla sneaked in at number five. National Insurance remained at four, so did Niva Bupa at three, and Care Health Insurance at two. Once again, Star Health led this list also, with over 10,000 cases.

Recommendations or Awards by Ombudsmen

Now, coming to the most critical of the numbers released by the Office of the Council for Insurance Ombudsmen – the recommendations and awards made by the Ombudsmen.

In cases where the Ombudsman made recommendations or asked insurers to actually pay customers, the top five included HDFC Ergo with 565 cases at the fifth position, and National Insurance again at the fourth position with 1,015 cases.

Niva Bupa with 1,297 cases, and Care Health with 1,687 cases stayed at number three and two respectively.

Star Health, which took the top spot on other lists, made it to the top slot of this list as well. In fact, recommendations were made and awards were issued in 7,500 cases against Star Health alone.

Health insurance data’s significance

Why are these lists and data crucial for you? Because they show how your health insurer has been dealing with other customers. So, the next time you think about buying or renewing your health insurance, keep this list handy.