Slowly, the cashless mediclaim facility seems to be heading for an exit from the market. Late last week, the insurers started backing out from cashless facility in major metros. Now, there is a further blow on insured -Â a 10.3% service tax. This tax is going to have a chain effect. First, the newly introduced tax will make the insurers exit out of the cashless mediclaim sooner than later (or they may considerably increase the premiums for cashless claims). It will eventually reduce the patronage of corporate and high quality hospitals. Reason: even if one may get eventual reimbursement, the person might not have cash flow to pay upfront. Also, people will be burdened with the cash balance requirements even with predictable hospitalizations: say, child birth and elective surgery.
This whole change will be an additional burden on employees and senior citizens.