Reliance Life Insurance bets large on health cover up

Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Life Insurance is cheerful on the growing health insurance market and expects to sell over a million policies this financial.
“There is a huge growth prospective in the health insurance section in India. We plan to valve the highly under-penetrated market to be among the top 3 insurers by 2012 and sell over one million policies this year,” president and executive director Malay Ghosh told The Telegraph.
At present, Reliance Life has a smallest presence in the section, which is subject by general insurance firms such as Bajaj Allianz, ICICI Lombard and Tata AIG, among private players.
According to a report by global research firm RNCOS, the health insurance market premium is projected to produce at a compounded annual rate of over 25(%) per cent between 2009-10 and 2013-14. Premium collections touched $1.31 billion in 2008-09, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) said in its yearly report of 2008-09.
Reliance Life, which crossed the 60-lakh blot in total policy sales last month, plans to support its portfolio with innovative products that comprise total reimbursable health expenses, individual and family floater on equally group and individual product platforms, and long-term care.
On the recent withdrawal of cashless flair by many insurers, the company said it would seek positive clarifications from the IRDA before taking any action.
Industry experts said although the health insurance market extended quickly in the past couple of years, it remained largely under-penetrated. “Some of the critical shortcomings include low awareness, non-coverage of out-patient care and obtainable diseases, inefficient cost management, product reach in rural areas and weak retail sharing model,” stated the RNCOS report.
“Apart from a strong product line, quality customer service, contact and training are what create a highly differentiated product,” Ghosh said.
The company aims to break even by the end of this financial.

Stopping cashless medical insurance is break of agreement

It is unfortunate that even public-sector Insurance Companies have joined private-sector ones in their cold attitude towards their individual customers when large number of chief hospitals were de-listed by these public-sector Insurance companies for extending cashless reimbursement for availing medical facilities through mediclaim policies. It is a break of agreement when the facility was discontinued uninformed to policy-holders unexpectedly from 01.07.2010.

However Insurance companies for prospect can issue two types of mediclaim policies, with cashless policies valid at all hospitals as before, at some higher premium than normal policies without cashless ability during treatment. But any such system should be for new policies only. It is pointless to break the contract with policy-holders by midway termination of any earlier prevailing facility including cashless mediclaim at different hospitals.

Union government should combine all public-sector Insurance companies in one united company to save largely on advertisements and overheads.