Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Bharti AXA offers 10% discount on top of health plans for women

On the eve of International Women’s day, non-life insurer - Bharti AXA General Insurance offered 10 per cent discount on all its health Insurance products for women. The discount will be available till March 31, 2010.

The insurer said that the main objective of the promotion is to increase knowledge amongst women of the need for financial protection against health risks and other stress-related diseases that women today are prone to.
“With today’s fast paced lifestyles and nuclear families, women today are more horizontal to health related problems than they ever were before. High stress levels at the workplace and other lifestyle related health risks; all point towards the need for better health care & health insurance to provide much needed help is case of an unwelcome possibility,” said Amarnath Ananthanarayan CEO, Bharti AXA General Insurance.
For More Information About Insurance Policy.
Bharti AXA Insurance

Friday, March 5, 2010

New India cheapest health insurance policy

Public sector general insurance company, New India Assurance (NIA), is looking to launch one of the cheapest health insurance policies, with the yearly insurance premium for a minimum Rs 1 lakh sum assured for less than Rs 1,000.

The insurer is hoping to maintain the price of the policy low by restricting the choice of hospitals, and covering only major illnesses.
M Ramadoss, chairman-cum-managing director, New India Assurance said. “By restricting the choice of the insured, we will see how the premium could be brought down. We can also look at sum insured at more than Rs 1 lakh. We hope to file the application with the regulator in the next one month,”
The proposal comes at a time when almost all general insurance companies have raised their health insurance premiums by 20-30 per cent over the last year.
At present, for a person of up to 35 years, the minimum premium rates for up to Rs 1 lakh sum assured is Rs 1,000 or more.
Also, with SBI general insurance slated to enter the market this year, the competition in the industry is likely to step up.
“The entry of SBI in the general insurance industry can make a impression in the market,” said Ramadoss.
New India Assurance is the largest general insurance company with gross premium last year at about Rs 6,200 crore.
General insurance companies have been trying to reduce the loss ratio in the health insurance companies by reducing exposure to corporate health policies or repricing them upwards.
The overall growth of the health insurance portfolio has come down to about 5-6 per cent in the financial year 2008-09, against about 30 per cent in the previous year, said Ramadoss.
This financial year, New India Assurance is looking at a growth rate of about 16 per cent in terms of gross premium, at Rs 7,250 crore (with Rs 6,000 crore from India, and the rest from foreign branches).
Ramadoss said, the general insurance industry was likely to grow at about 10-11 per cent, with the gross premium collection at Rs 34,000 crore. In the last financial year, the gross premium collection was Rs 31,000 crore.
Last year, New India Assurance had a net profit of Rs 270 crore. This year, there might be a reduction in the net profit to about Rs 250 crore, due to lesser investment profit, said Ramadoss.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

New India Assurance plans small-premium mediclaim cover

New India Assurance Company, the market chief in the general insurance sector, plans to launch by the end of 2010-11 a low-premium health insurance policy for the masses, according to its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr M. Ramadoss.
The planned mediclaim policy, expected to be one of the lowest priced in the market, would cover a selected number of diseases and also contain the number of hospitals from which the policyholders can avail themselves of the medical services, Mr Ramadoss said.
The insurer plans to file the policy with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority in a month.
“The whole idea is to carry down the premium rates by restricting the choices to the insured,” Mr Ramadoss said on the sidelines of a seminar organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry here. The policyholders in this case would be given a list of hospitals for availing themselves of the medical services and the policy might cover a selected 51 common diseases, he pointed out.
“At present, the standard annual premium rate for a mediclaim policy is Rs 1,000 for a sum insured of Rs 1 lakh. We wish to bring down the rates in the new policy to the sub-thousand levels,” he said. The sum insured for the policy may be Rs 1 lakh or more, he added.
He, however, maintained that the policy was still in the scheming stage and the financials for the same were not yet frozen.
He said .It also planned to launch a new motor insurance policy in 2010-11 and would look at revising upwards the prices of some of its existing health insurance products.
The Gross Direct Premium Income (GDPI) of the company from Indian operations may increase to Rs 6,000 crore in 2009-10, up from Rs 5,200 crore in 2008-09. Its GDPI from 23 branches located abroad will increase from Rs 1,000 crore last financial to Rs 1,250 crore in 2009-10, he pointed out.
He added. The general insurance sector was estimated to grow at 10-11 per cent this fiscal with the GDPI collected by all the companies expected to exceed Rs 34,000 crore.