Health Insurance Policy with sum assured of Rs 50 Lakhs seems to be a favourite number of Indian Insurance Companies – Yes the time has changed

Health Insurance Policy with sum assured of Rs 50 Lakhs seems to be a favourite number of Indian Insurance Companies – Yes the time has changed

Max Bupa made the beginning in our country by coming up with Health Insurance Policy for maximum sum assured of Rs 50 Lakhs and within few weeks it has been able to sell 15 policies. This shows that there was an unfulfilled demand for such product. May be the initial success of this product has appealed so much to other insurance companies that now we hear:

•New India Assurance
•Apollo Munich
•Iffco Tokio

all of them have started working actively for coming up with similar or a competitive product. An improvement being considered by New India is that its product will not be a normal domestic product (only within India) but will also be valid for overseas treatment.

We welcome this move to upgrade the Indian customer by offering premium product to him.

We have questions before us:

(i) Under the name of Medical Tourism USA Insurance Companies are sending their patients to India which shows that Indian Health Care industry has achieved certain level of acceptance in the world and is economical also.

(ii) Under New India policy- will HNI’s of India start going to foreign countries during summer season for treatment under the policy. Will the travel expenses be also paid as part of claim? If we are charging higher premium let us charge something more and include this facility also. This is the wish of many potential customers, who talked to me in last 2 days.

(iii) Is it worth while to have a product where few hundred policies are to be issued during the year? Will these polices be handled by same TPA’s or a special team will be set up.

If you have some more questions do let us know. We will be pleased to have your comments.