Inclusion of Ayurveda, Unani & Siddha in Health Insurance : A Possibility

Domestic Healthcare systems such as Ayurveda, Unani & Siddha might very soon be treated on par with Allopathy when it comes to medical insurance. This might be recommended by a committee formed by the insurance council. The Department of Ayurveda has asked the General Insurance Council to look into the possibility of including the non-allopathic means treatment for accepting claims under health insurance. A presentation has been made to the council members, who in turn, have formed a 3 member committee to look into the matter.

The committee comprises of CEOs from Star Health, Max BUPA and Apollo. This committee would examine the merits & demerits of the proposal and would then recommend processes to implement if it is convinced about the inclusion of such medicines under health insurance. The IRDA will take a call on the matter. A majority of India’s population resort to alternative means of treatment which is recognized by the Indian Government but not by the insurance industry. Most of the insurers who operate under a joint venture with a global company say that there is no established way to verify such claims and no data to rely upon as well.

In allopathic treatments there are scientific studies and they know how long a treatment will take and how much would it cost. But under alternative means such as Ayurvedic they do not have enough data to cover them. Curing an ailment under alternative medicine means mostly takes a long time (in some cases years) and they do not have a structured way of looking at the data. But under allopathy, it’s more immediate and easily manageable.Practitioners under alternative means have no registrations and there’s no one body that recognizes hospitals/institutes that treats such patients.

The Health and Family Welfare ministry has been pushing such alternative means so hard because these are affordable and a majority of people make use of domestic expertise in these areas. Allopathic medicines are quite expensive even for people living in the urban areas.

The Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy was created in March 1995 and re-named as Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, or Ayush, in November 2003 to develop education and research in those fields. In conclusion the inclusion of Ayurveda, Unani & Siddha in Health Insurance is a Possibility.