Policybazaar’s FY26 data put pollution-associated health insurance claims at 4.34 times their FY23 level, offering a sample-based view of insured medical costs rather than a nationwide measure of illness.
The company reported increases of 67% in FY24, 70% in FY25 and 53% in FY26. The year-by-year figures show rising claim counts across those three fiscal years, with FY23 as the comparison point for the 4.34-times level.
Cardiovascular conditions represented 43.5% of the claims. Other respiratory infections accounted for 35%, pneumonia for 11.2% and bronchitis for 6%, according to the figures. The breakdown describes the mix of reported claims, not the share of people in India with those conditions.
Delhi had the most claims among the listed cities, followed by Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Insurance Asia separately reported 38,554 claims in FY26, compared with 8,875 in FY23. Its city tally put Delhi at 8,093 claims, Pune at 4,927, Bengaluru at 4,736, Mumbai at 3,370 and Hyderabad at 3,169.
Financial Express reported that the total claim amount in FY26 was 4.5 times its FY23 level and that the average claim was ₹62,662. The outlet said the analysis used a sample of 50,000 customers. Those results describe that sample and may not reflect India’s wider health insurance market.
The timing of claims was concentrated in the cooler months: nearly 56% of FY26 claims were recorded from October through March. Policybazaar also said 48% of consumers in highly polluted cities opted for higher health insurance coverage. That figure concerns consumers’ coverage choices, separate from the reported claim categories.
Rohan Goel, Business Head, Health Insurance at Policybazaar, said the company’s data showed claims had “surged 4.3 times.” The figures associate claims with pollution; they do not establish that pollution caused each condition.
