Mar 16 2021
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ManipalCigna Health launches medical insurance with up to Rs 3 crore cover, highest in industry
This product also has one-time premium waivers for special conditions, and loyalty discounts for customers.
Standalone health insurer ManipalCigna Health has launched a new medical insurance product that offers a cover of up to Rs 3 crore. The company in a statement said the ‘ManipalCigna Lifetime Health’ plan is a regular premium lifetime renewable plan that will cover costs of medical treatment in India and abroad. The sum insured ranges from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 3 crore.
In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Prasun Sikdar, MD & CEO, ManipalCigna Health Insurance said that the product has been developed basis an extensive research to understand the gaps currently existing in the Indian Insurance market.
Based on our internal research, we identified that there is a need for value based high sum insured to ensure medical inflation does not have any impact on the coverage. "Impact of COVID making people realize that insurance is no more a priority but a necessity and how much is adequate to ensure all round protection," he added. The product has three variants, one for domestic, one for global medical expenses and one with special benefits for women customers.
For this product, the premium for the India plan for individual policy (for a healthy individual of 35 years of age) will be Rs 12,051.34 (including taxes) for Rs 50 lakh sum insured.
The premium for the global plan for individual policy (healthy individual of 35 years will be Rs 17,196.14 (including taxes) for Rs 50 lakh sum insured.
For the global plan with women covers and optional covers, the premium individual female of 35 years will be Rs 29,628.62 (including taxes) for the Rs 50 lakh cover.
Product features
Sikdar said that there will be an unlimited restoration benefit available for treatments in India. This will be available if the sum insured is insufficient as a result of previous claims in that policy year. Currently, medical insurance policies in India commonly have a sum insured of Rs 50 lakh to a maximum Rs 1 crore.
The ManipalCigna product covers pre-hospitalisation expenses of up to 60 days and post-hospitalisation of up to 180 days. Day-care procedures that require less than 24 hours of hospitalisation are also covered. This product also has a one-time premium waiver. This waiver is applicable to a policyholder with injuries, partial/total disablement due to an accident/critical illness. In all such cases, the insurer will pay the renewal premium for one year.
Optional covers like an air ambulance, psychological consultations for women, breast cancer screening for women, cash for chemotherapy and bariatric surgery will be available on payment of additional premium.
Sikdar explained that the policy also provides loyalty premium discounts on the applicable renewal premium from the fourth policy year onwards till lifetime. There is a 5 percent discount from the fourth to seventh policy year and 10 percent from the eighth year onward.
"To help customers include more family members under the single individual policy, the product provides a family discount of 15 percent for covering two and more family members. There is also a long-term discount of 7.5 percent and 10 percent on a 2-year and 3-year policy tenure respectively," he added.
Explaining further, he said that the domestic cover will take care of treatment for illness and injury in India and the global cover will take care of treatment to be availed in the chosen area of cover, arising due to any of the covered 27 major illnesses. The exclusions include illness resulting from the insured committing any breach of law, contamination from nuclear fuel or radiation, cosmetic or plastic surgery, change-of-gender treatments, hazardous or adventure sports among others.
Health premiums seeing uptick
"Due to COVID-19 there is an increase in awareness among consumers about buying health insurance policies. People are also proactively looking to increase their coverage, and renewal has improved with increasing upsell trend," added Sikdar.
He added that against this backdrop, the overall health insurance industry reported a 10 percent growth in 2020, with total gross written premium (GWP) of Rs 61,712 crore.
Here the standalone health insurers in the country reported a 24 percent growth with total GWP at Rs 16,948 crore. Sikdar added that in 2020, GWP growth for ManipalCigna Health Insurance stood at 27 percent at Rs 689 crore. "So, overall health insurance industry outlook seems very positive, as we do see an increase in both need and demand for health insurance moving forward," he added.