Fine print renders insurance policies incomprehensible, expert says

Business journalist Nitya K, writing in a column for The Hindu, argues that insurance policies in India remain impenetrable despite regulators mandating simplified wordings. She recounts giving a hospitalisation policy to a group of intelligent adults: one mistook it for the Constitution because it began with a Preamble, another could not physically read blue-coloured fine print, and a third described the language as written defensively to clarify what insurers will not cover.

K states that the simplest policy runs 12 pages in 9-point font, often in double columns, and that mere presence of information does not equal understanding. She defines true understanding as being able to say what a clause means in a real claims situation, not just reciting the words. The column promises future instalments explaining policies, as IRDAI's 2026 deadline for a one-page benefit summary approaches.