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Thursday, June 30, 2011 12:58 PM]
PSU New India Assurance has come at the top in a customer satisfaction survey of auto insurance companies done by the research firm JD Power. The second position is also held by another nationalized firm, Oriental Insurance and the third position is occupied by private insurer ICICI Lombard.
On a 1000 point scale, New India Assurance achieved a score of 804, Oriental Insurance scored 802 and ICICI Lombard stood at a score of 801. The survey reviewed 15 companies.The auto insurance customer satisfaction index chart ranked Anil Ambani’s Reliance General Insurance at 10th position with a score of 781.
The other insurance companies that found a place in the list are Tata AIG General at 4th, National Insurance at 5th, Royal Sundaram at 6th, United India at 7th, Bajaj Allianz General at 8th and HDFC Ergo at 9th.
All in all, overall satisfaction level score stood at 796, which is eight points lower than that of 2010. Furthermore, the interaction factor has come down in 2011, falling by twenty-eight points from year 2010.
The survey was answered by 5284 auto insurance clients, and it took into account six factors; claims, interaction, renewal and purchase process, product and policy offerings, premium and price for coverage offered and billing and payment process.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011 12:56 PM]
All Indian private general insurers except ICICI Lombard have abstained from providing insurance cover to India’s official carrier Air India. On May 20, Air India invited insurance bids for itself and its subsidiaries. In response only four PSUs – Oriental Insurance, New India Assurance, United India and National Insurance and only one private insurer ICICI Lombard applied.
Air India insurance policy is the nation’s biggest aviation policy, and it is due for renewal on October 1st. Last year, the bid was won by ICICI Lombard, and the airline paid a premium of approximately thirty million dollars.
The policy covers passenger liabilities, aircraft value and legal suites in case of natural calamities. Like before, PSU insurance companies have applied in a pool since the sums of money involved are high.
Private insurers such as Bajaj Allianz General, Reliance General, Iffco Tokio General and HDFC Ergo had bid last year in a group, but have abstained this year.
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Tuesday, June 28, 2011 2:58 PM]
Warren Buffett's India's visit to promote Berkshire Insurance saw a rush among customers to purchase motor insurance policies. The initiative was “Opportunity to meet the Oracle of Omaha”.
There was a rush to meet the legendry investor; many well-known personalities, including fund managers, brokers and CEOs lined up to hear the Buffett on the launching day. Berkshire Insurance sold about 300 motor insurance policies in March cashing on the meeting between Buffett and customers. Gradually, the excitement died down, and the company only managed to sell 10-20 policies in the succeeding months.
When contacted, Berkshire India CEO Arun Balakrishnan refused to divulge the sales number and further added "We are revamping our website. We are coming up with new version, and we will enter other segments."
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Monday, June 27, 2011 2:17 PM]
Life insurance companies have seen a decline in the new business premium income in the first two months of the current financial year as rigorous regulations on sale of ULIPS continues to weigh down the industry.
Income from selling new policies went down by 12.3% in April-May as compared to the previous fiscal year period. This plunge in income from new business was seen after the change in rules for ULIP in September.
PSU Life Insurance Corporation of India posted a decline of 8% in new business premium income, while the private sector insuring companies saw 23.3% decline.
However, the industry experts are expecting the industry to return to normal growth in six months.
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Sunday, June 26, 2011 2:16 PM]
Justice B. Chandra Kumar of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the New India Insurance to pay Rs 3.46 lakh with interest to the parents of a young person who was killed in an accident by a truck.
The judge handed over this decree after hearing the plea of the parents of 19-year-old son Alok Kumar, who was killed by a truck in Hyderabad on August 15, 2003. Although the truck was insured, the insurer declined to compensate the parents of the deceased youth, arguing that the truck driver cum owner did not have a valid driving licence.
The insurance company argued that the lorry owner's policy was not valid since the latter did not have a valid driving licence at the time of the accident; so it was not bounded to compensate the victim’s family.
The Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal also exonerated the insurance company of any liability in the case but directed the truck owner to pay an amount of Rs. 1.72 lakh to the parents with 7.5% interest.
Not agreeing, the parents then approached the High Court to increase the compensation. After going through the case, Justice B. Chandra Kumar ordered the insurance company to pay the compensation.
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Saturday, June 25, 2011 2:12 PM]
IRDA has decided to defer portability of health insurance until October 1st. Previously, Health Insurance portability was to be implemented from 1st July.
The decision was taken in view of general insurance companies not yet ready for the portability. The insurers believe that there is a lack of clarity on various issues related to portability. Representative body of the general insurance companies in India-General Insurance Council (GIC) wrote to the IRDA on behalf of the insurers seeking a delay until all related issues are clear.
In the early part of this month, representatives of all twenty-two health insurance companies met in Mumbai to consider feasibility and issues related to health insurance portability. The draft copy of the agreement was also sent to IRDA.
Some of the major issues companies are facing are pricing and the portability timings. According to them, guidelines issued by the IRDA for pricing are not clear.
The second issue is the timing of portability, whether it could be done at the time of renewal or anytime in the year and the timing to start the procedure of changing from one insuring company to another.
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Friday, June 24, 2011 10:02 AM]
About 47.5 lakh registered domestic help workers will shortly be covered by Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in the form of a smart card-based cashless health insurance scheme. RSBY is a flagship programme of the Union government.
The union cabinet sanctioned the extension of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to all registered domestic helps in the country. The scheme will be implemented between years 2011-2015.
The health insurance scheme will provide smart cashless health insurance cover up to Rs. 30000 in any hospital on the panel in the country. The funds for the scheme will be apportioned from the National Social Security Fund for unorganized workers. The premium will be shared by the state governments and centre and in the ratio of 25:75.
Maximum of the domestic workers are females in the urban areas and are from weak communities. Almost all of them are illiterate, poor, unskilled and vulnerable, making private health care inaccessible to them. The health insurance scheme is anticipated to improve their health status. Social activists and physicians have welcomed the move.
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Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:16 PM]
Good news for senior citizens! Now, senior citizens up to eighty-five years of age will be allowed to purchase term insurance without any medical check-ups.
Private insurer IDBI Federal Life Insurance has brought a whole-life policy in the market which allows senior citizens up to 85 years of age to purchase insurance cover. This is the first time in India, when a company has brought whole-life policy up to 85 years of age. All insurance companies, including LIC,allows maximum age up to 60 years.
IDBI Federal Life Insurance is a joint venture between IDBI Bank, Federal Bank and European insuring company Aegis.
The policy requires no medical check-ups. Nevertheless, the maximum sum insured is Rs. Five lakh and benefit limit is up to 125% of the sum insured in case of demise in the first two years.
IDBI Federal plans to sell the policy directly to customers. At first, the company will sell the policy only to the customers of Federal Bank and IDBI Bank, but in the time to come, the product will be marketed to everybody.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011 3:04 PM]
Manipal-based Syndicate Bank has shortlisted twelve insurance companies for JV partnership for its entry into the life insurance sector.
Both Indian Players as well as foreign insurers have shown a big interest . Among Indian insuring companies, HDFC Standard Life, Aviva Life, Max New York Life, Avantha Ergo, Metlife India Life and Birla Sun Life and have expressed interest in a joint venture with the Syndicate bank. Two Japanese insuring companies, Sumitomo Life Insurance and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance have also conveyed interest injoint venture with the bank.
Among the twelve insurance companies, Syndicate bank has also shortlisted Avantha Ergo, a JV between Germany's ERGO and Indian Avantha Group.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011 11:19 AM]
Mukesh Ambani’s entry into the insurance sector is very likely to face stiff competition from the established insurers, including his own brother Anil.
Last week, Reliance Industries declared its entry into the insurance sector by buying Bharti's 74% shares worth Rs. 1,665 crore in Bharti-AXA. This is RIL's first big step in the insurance business.
With this deal, both Ambani brothers will face each other in the battle field. Reliance Life, Anil Ambani's insurance company has about 10% market share among the life insurance companies.
It will be for the first time after their separation that Anil and Mukesh will compete with each other in the insurance field.
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Monday, June 20, 2011 10:22 AM]
Max Bupa Health Insurance has declared a target of Rs. 70 crore in first premium collections for this financial year. The company has already crossed Rs. 40 crore within fourteen months of its start-up and has attained the milestone of having insured more than 70,000 lives.
Max Bupa inaugurated its latest branch office in Kerala. This is the company’s 10th branch in the country. Max Bupa has various products in the market such as “Heartbeat Health Insurance Plan”.
The company is a joint venture between Max India Limited having 74% shares and Bupa Group with 26% holdings.
Max Bupa Health Insurance holds presence in Delhi, Kochi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jaipur and Surat.
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Sunday, June 19, 2011 10:16 AM]
Now, with Reliance entering into partnership, private non-life insuring company Bharti AXA General is set to fine-tune its future business plans. The company had intended to infuse Rs. 200 crore by the end of 2010 and grow its top-line business by 60% in financial year 2011-12.
Presently, Bharti owns 745% shares and remaining 26% by AXA of France in the joint venture. Last week, Reliance Industries bought Bharti’s stake in both the non-life and life insurance joint ventures.
During fiscal year 2010-11, the company collected Rs. 551 crore in premiums and incurred a loss of Rs. 170 crore. To cover the losses, the company has decided to strengthen its existing business practices and to amend underwriting practices in both health and motor portfolios.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011 10:13 AM]
Insurers are getting one more opportunity to bid for the central government’s health insurance project- ‘Central Government Employees and Pensioners Health Insurance Scheme’. The scheme is intended for central government employees eligible for medical treatment under the CGHS Scheme.
Last year, ICICI Lombard General Insurance won the bid to manage the health insurance project, but at the last moment, the bidding process was cancelled by the health ministry due some changes in the terms and conditions. Now, it will have to apply anew to qualify again.
Last year’s unsuccessful applicants such as New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, National Insurance, United India Insurance, Cholamandalam, Star Health and Ms General Insurance are also allowed to try their luck again.
The CGHS scheme covers over 800,000 families, out of which 500,000 are employees and 300,000 are pensioners, via its web of hospitals and clinics in twenty-five cities and towns across India.
The primary contract would be for three years and the insurer administering the program would have the flexibility to seek a change in the premium every year.
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Friday, June 17, 2011 12:02 PM]
According to a survey done by Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance in seventeen countries, 74% of Indians are financially prepared for retirement. Indians have come second best in Asia Pacific with 74% of them are monetarily prepared for their retirement.
However, 51% of survey takers in India are still not sure about their financial security in old age and are expecting to work to support themselves. Currently, India ranks highly in savings rates and does not possess immediate demographic challenges like most of other countries. But, in the long run, India will face the same pressure as other countries.
Presently, majority of Indian population is of working age and after their retirement, India will also face the problems of ageing, and non-working population. It was also noted that those individuals, who plan financially beforehand, enjoy several benefits over those who do not and have fewer worries in later life.
In India, 1,028 people participated in the survey, of which, 778 were men and 250 women.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011 11:44 AM]
Bank-backed life insurers are opposing the IRDA’s bancassurance working group proposals. According to the committee’s recommendations, each bank can have affiliation with two life insurers to promote life policies.
Bancassurance or the ‘Bank Insurance Model’ is a partnership between a bank and an insurance company whereby the insurance company uses the bank to market insurance products.
Presently, a bank can tie-up with only one general insuring company and one life insuring company for selling insurance products to its clients. IRDA bancassurance committee has advocated that banks can have one partner each in life insurance, health insurance and non-life insurance (excluding health).
Out of 80,000 bank branches in India, only 10,000 branches are used to sell insurance policies.
Bank-promoted life insuring companies such as ICICI Prudential Life, SBI Life and Star Union Dai-ichi Life are wary about LIC tying up with their parent banks. Then again, LIC, which has affiliations with twelve banks for selling insurance products, is worried that such a motion might affect its near-monopoly in the bancassurance channel.
Insuring companies are preparing to take up this issue with IRDA through the Life Insurance Council.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2011 12:58 PM]
Private life insurer Bharti AXA Life Insurance has appointment Sandeep Ghosh as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will take over from the interim CEO, Chalisgaonkar, who has now gone back to the parent company AXA group to hold the position of Country Advisor (India).
Sandeep Ghosh has over twenty years of experience in the financial services sector, both in India and overseas. Before joining Bharti AXA, he was working for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) as Managing Director, Commercial Banking Head for Asia Pacific in Hong Kong.
Sandeep Ghosh has done his Masters in Business Administration from IIM, Ahmadabad and Bachelors in Accountancy and Financial Management from Sydenham College, Mumbai University.
AXA's CEO, (South East Asia region), Kevin Wright said in a statement, "We are delighted to have Ghosh on board. We are committed to building a strong franchise in India and I look forward to him to lead the Bharti AXA Life team to newer heights through his leadership, rich experience and market knowledge."
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Tuesday, June 14, 2011 3:29 PM]
General insurance companies are yet to sort out the issues related to health insurance portability and they want IRDA to postpone the launch of portability. IRDA has set July 1st 2011 as the date of launching.
With this initiative, health insurance policy holders will be able to switch insurance company, without losing any of their benefits from their old policy.
Health insurance companies believe there is still lack of clarity on various issues related to portability. Representative body of the general insurance companies in India-General Insurance Council (GIC) is in the process of writing to the IRDA on behalf of the insurers seeking a delay until all related issues are clear.
On 8th of this month, representatives of all twenty-two health insurance companies met in Mumbai to consider feasibility and issues related to health insurance portability. GIC will send the draft copy of the agreement to IRDA this week.
Some of the major issues companies are facing are pricing and the portability timings. According to them, guidelines issued by the IRDA for pricing are not clear.
The second issue is the timing of portability, whether it could be done at the time of renewal or anytime in the year and the timing to start the procedure of changing from one insuring company to another.
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Monday, June 13, 2011 12:30 PM]
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) is considering the choice of ‘self insurance’ for compensating victims in case of nuclear accidents. The corporation is weighing this option as negotiations with General Insurance Corporation for setting a nuclear insurance pool are in limbo over nuclear plant inspection issues.
Self insurance is a risk management method in which a calculated amount of money is reserved for future losses instead of purchasing insurance. However, insurance experts are questioning NPCIL’s ability to manage the fund.
Finance director of NPCIL, J. K. Ghai said, “We have the option of self insurance with us under the Nuclear Act and since the liability of Rs 1,500 crore is not enough we can meet it with a cess pool which can grow to the required limit in 8-10 years. In case of an emergency anytime we have a strong balance sheet to meet the contingency requirement.”
According to Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 has fixed the Liability limit at Rs. 1,500 crore per operator per event.
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Sunday, June 12, 2011 12:28 PM]
The insurance regulator IRDA has penalized New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company, IFFCO Tokio, ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and Royal Sundaram Alliance for allotting corporate agency licences to six of the Maruti Suzuki subsidiaries. Each of these six general insurers has been fined a sum of Rs. five lakh for breaking IRDA rules.
Maruti Suzuki India has six insurance subsidiaries; Maruti Insurance Distribution Services Ltd., Maruti Insurance Business Agency Ltd., Maruti Insurance Agency Solutions Ltd., Maruti Agency Network Ltd, Maruti Insurance Agency Logistics Ltd. and Maruti Insurance Agency Services Ltd. In each of these subsidiaries, Maruti Suzuki holds 99.99% shares and has obtained corporate agency licences to sell policies of these six general insurance companies.
According to IRDA norms, only one licence can be allotted to one company provided that the company does not have any other insurance function, including agency and product manufacturing.
IRDA observed that these insuring companies allotted licences to Maruti subsidiaries, violating the IRDA Regulations (licensing of corporate agents), 2002. Now, the insuring companies are likely to terminate their agency licence to Maruti subsidiaries.
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Saturday, June 11, 2011 12:50 PM]
Reliance Industries Limited, Bharti Enterprises and AXA on Friday reached an understanding in which Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and its associate Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited (RIIL) acquired Bharti’s 74% share of in Bharti AXA General Insurance Co. Ltd. and Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
According to industry experts, estimated value of the deal is around Rs 3,000 crore.
With this move, RIL and RIIL would in effect own 57% stake in Bharti AXA Life and 17% in Bharti AXA General. AXA would continue to hold its existing 26% shares in the joint venture and would be the active partner in day to day operations. The business deal is subject to the approvals from IRDA and other pertinent approvals.
Reliance said the proposed contract contemplates an option by which AXA would acquire from RIL and RIIL up to 24 per cent shareholding in both the insurance companies in accordance with the applicable regulations as and when the FDI regulations permit such a holding by AXA.
“Upon exercise of such an option, RIL will effectively own 45 per cent, RIIL will effectively own 5 per cent and AXA the balance 50 per cent in both the insurance companies,” the Reliance statement said.
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Friday, June 10, 2011 11:19 AM]
Max New York Life Insurance, one of the India’s top private life insurance companies, has come out with a new ULIP product by the name of ‘Fast Track Plan’.
‘Fast Track Plan’ is a flexible plan which can be customized according to the personal needs of customers and thus can help them in planning their savings in a more effective manner to accomplish their goals of getting better savings.
This ULIP product provides build up through the choice of a shorter policy period and a faster secure growth through fund options. Its unique feature is the broad array of protection multiple starting from 1.25 times to 20 times of the annual premium depending upon the age and payment term.
It is available for age group of up to sixty years with coverage up to seventy years. The product covers a broad customer base with a range of payment terms, and sum assured limits. The customers are allowed free switching up to twelve times a year. Its partial withdrawal feature permits the customers to withdraw the fund value after five years.
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Thursday, June 9, 2011 12:37 PM]
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has announced the regulatory norms for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for general insurance companies. These rules will immediately come into effect.
The new set of regulatory guidelines is valid only for private companies thus leaving out PSUs Oriental Insurance, New India Assurance, National Insurance Company and United Insurance.
Insurers seeking mergers now require approval from the tribunal or relevant high court before taking the final permission from the IRDA. Besides these, insuring companies would also have to take commendation of the Reserve Bank of India. If the venture partner is an overseas company, approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's would also be needed.
IRDA said in a statement that these guidelines are issued to ensure the streamlining of products, protection of policyholders, projected revenue of the merged entity, rationalization of the branch network and taxation issues.
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Wednesday, June 8, 2011 1:05 PM]
ULIPs (Unit-Linked Insurance Plans), once number one choice in life insurance products, are slowly losing ground in favour of traditional insurance plans.
The sale of ULIPs has gone down considerably in the last six months both among public sector’s LIC of India and private sector life insuring companies.
In the private life insurance segment, the share of ULIPs had dropped from 85% before September last year to 65% now and customers are reverting back to traditional life insurance plans. The reason being, the new rules & regulations established by IRDA regarding ULIPs are not augmenting well with insurers as well as customers.
Since the introduction of new IRDA norms in September 2010, over 270 ULIP products had been recalled by the Insurance companies.
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011 11:53 AM]
The association of nursing homes under the banner of the Association of Medical Consultants are in clash with public sector health insurance companies over cashless mediclaim. The association has stopped entertaining insurance claims until insurers agree to their demands.
The main reason behind this tug of war with public sector insurance firms is that small hospitals are finding the rates offered by insurers too small. The problem is only with public sector insurers as the private health insurers are offering good packages to their customers.
Many leading hospital chains have reached an agreement with PSU insurance firms to reinstate cashless mediclaim facilities to patients but small hospitals and nursing homes are still in limbo. This conflict has resulted in small hospitals offering heavy discounts to patients who are not availing of cashless mediclaim facilities.
The four Public Sector insurance companies are Oriental Insurance, New India Assurance, National Insurance Company and United India Insurance.
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Monday, June 6, 2011 3:36 PM]
HDFC Life grabbed the Top 100 CISO Awards for year 2011 in the event held in Mumbai. This award was presented to HDFC Life for showing noteworthy execution of information security and technology practices. In the function, HDFC Life's Sharad Sadadekar was acknowledged for accomplishing one of the best Information Security practices among Indian companies. Sharad Sadadekar is the Chief Information Security Officer of HDFC Life.
The 'Top 100 CISO Awards’ is an endeavour by InfoSecurity magazine and iViZ Security to acknowledge the contributions of Information Security professionals make in influencing and securing the business integrity. InfoSecurity is India's only published magazine exclusively focussing on Information technology Security and iViZ Security is the world's first company to set up ‘cloud based on demand penetration testing’ for networks and applications.
The awardees are selected by a board of six jury members consisting of IT security specialists from among industry and academia having extensive experience and knowledge.
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Sunday, June 5, 2011 3:32 PM]
Indian expatriates residing in Oman can now get back their medical expenses incurred in Oman as well as in India as New India Assurance has launched a new portable health cover plan for Indians residing in the Oman Sultanate.
According to this policy, a policy holder in Oman, on return to India, can get enrolled in the medical policy of the NIA without any conditions attached. Until now, a health policy holder in Oman on his return to India was not permitted to join the health insurance scheme of the company in India without losing benefits under the health policy issued in Oman. This was proving to be a big inconvenience to a large number of Indians residing in Oman.
New India Assurance is operating in the Sultanate since 1974. Currently, the insurer was selling two insurance plans, namely ‘Group health policy’ and ‘Family health policy’. Both the policies are huge success in the Omani insurance market.
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Saturday, June 4, 2011 3:29 PM]
India’s insurance watchdog IRDA announced on Friday that final IPO guidelines for life insurance companies to raise capital from the market will be finalized by the end of June.
The SEBI in October 2010 had given its permission to life insurance companies to come out with initial public offerings (IPOs).
IRDA Chairman, J. Hari Narayan said, “The exposure draft has been released. We are awaiting comments of various stakeholders, including the public. I expect the comments to be available in another week's time.”
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Friday, June 3, 2011 1:26 PM]
India’s leading private life insurance company HDFC Life has launched a new traditional plan by the name of ‘Sampoorn Samridhi’; a product offering benefit of both Whole Life Plan and Endowment Plan.
The best thing about Sampoorn Samridhi is that a customer can opt for enhanced cash option or enhanced cover option. In enhanced cash option, the customer gets enhanced maturity amount at the end of the policy term. If he wants to opt for the enhanced cover option, he will get Sum Assured on death up to the age of 99 years in addition to the maturity amount at the end of the policy term.
This insurance product has been designed keeping in mind the needs of customers. Sampoorn Samridhi is a low-priced and flexible life insurance product for all segments of customers giving them prospect of generating a corpus for his family via enhanced cover option.
The mode of payment is yearly, half-yearly, quarterly or monthly. The customers also have the options of deciding the term of the policy.
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Thursday, June 2, 2011 11:26 AM]
Medical Tourism is a growing concept in health care whereby people from all over the world visit India for their medical needs such as knee transplant, heart surgery, dialysis, dental and cosmetic surgery.
The reason behind this is that India’s medical technology and infrastructure are at par with those in Europe and America and soaring medical cost in countries like U.S. Each year thousands of people are coming to India from overseas for the medical check-up and surgical procedures related to heart, liver, bone and others diseases. The cost of surgery in India is lower by over 30% and treatment cost is almost 50% lower than that of western countries.
Medical tourism in quickly emerging as a big business opportunity for India with its high quality healthcare, low cost benefits and a vast English speaking populace. The medical tourism market in India is being estimated to be around Rs. 11000 crore in a couple of years.
United States Insurance companies are now looking favourably to the concept of medical tourism, and many medical insurers are giving their customers the option of getting medical treatment done in India. Even after adding together the costs of transportation and accommodation, costs of medical treatments and surgical procedures in India are far cheaper than western countries. In this way, insurers save big money and can also offer discounts to their customers.
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011 12:51 PM]
LIC of India, the undisputed leader in life insurance industry is all set make its foray into the health insurance field with the launch of its new policy “Jeevan Arogya” today.
Jeevan Arogya is a non-linked health insurance plan. According to the LIC press release, this policy will offer comprehensive hospitalization benefits for the whole family of the insured person. One special feature of this plan is that it will also offer cover to the parents-in-law of the insured person besides parents, spouse and minor children.
The minimum age to take this policy is eighteen years and the maximum age for self and spouse is sixty-five years and for parents and parents in law, it is seventy-five years. For children, the age limit is from ninety-one days to seventeen years.
This policy has the provision to cover the expenditures of one hundred forty various surgical procedures and one hundred forty different disease treatments. It covers hospital expenses of Rs. 1000 to Rs. 4000 per day, if the patient is hospitalized for more than one week. The ICU charges are double of normal. In case of surgery (57 specified major surgeries), there is also provision to receive one-half of the cost in advance.
In the first year, only thirty days hospital expenses will be covered and after that ninety days will be covered. The insured person can collect his reimbursement amount from LIC office by producing the bills and appropriate documents.
