LICs Maiden Health Insurance Product Soon

Life Insurance Corporation of India will file its maiden health insurance product with the insurance regulator by next month. The product will be a long-term policy and have a savings element, said Mr D.D. Singh, Executive Director (Health), LIC. It will have a unit-linked component and be issued as a family floater policy.

There will also be sub-limits in place, and customers will be provided with ‘hospital cash’. Munich Re will be the reinsurer for LIC on this product. The premium for the product will increase progressively on an annual basis as the customer’s age increases. Mr Singh said that the objective was to keep costs low. LIC has already chosen eight third party administrators for servicing claims from this product. The payment of claims will, however, be made by banks, selected by LIC. “We have selected Syndicate Bank, Axis Bank and Bank of America for the payment of claims,” Mr Singh told reporters, on the sidelines of a health seminar organised by CII. LIC’s health insurance division is based in Hyderabad . It will have access to a centralised data repository. The health insurance outfit will have a team of 20-30 employees but will use LIC’s actuaries for designing products. LIC’s agency force, numbering over 10 lakh, will be leveraged to market the product. Mr Singh said the Government was inclined to have LIC’s health insurance business as a separate subsidiary. But the Corporation had to take a call on going ahead with this. Among the other life insurance companies, Bajaj Allianz Life has a long term health insurance product.

ICICI Prudential Life and HDFC Standard Life are also looking at health insurance products. Standalone health insurance company Apollo DKV is also lining up health insurance products to hit the market. The company will design products for the urban and rural population as well as for corporates catering to specific sectors. They will actively look at disease management and also introduce niche products like a policy covering HIV patients .