Companies should provide health insurance to all employees: GIC head

The head of the General Insurance Council proposed measures to enhance health insurance coverage in India. Tapan Singhel, Managing Director and CEO of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, suggested that employers should be mandated to provide health coverage, potentially funded through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budgets for premium payments. He highlighted the concept of the "missing middle" in health insurance and noted that in the US, it is legally required for employers to offer health cover. Singhel recommended merging corporate health insurance with state government plans and providing tax breaks to employers for covering household workers, as these strategies could effectively broaden health insurance coverage without imposing additional costs on the government.