Reliance Life became India's second life insurer after LIC to offer a health insurance policy, while seeking a distinctive edge by clubbing wealth accumulation along with medical insurance coverage in its new product.
Barely days after market leader Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) introducing its "Health Plus" plan, Anil Ambani group's Reliance Life launched its "Wealth Plus Health" policy on Thursday.
Announcing the new product, Reliance Life Insurance CEO P Nandgopal told reporters: "The scheme is the first wealth creation product that also offers comprehensive health coverage as a key differentiator in the domestic insurance market."
The unit-linked plan also offers complete investment flexibility to grow wealth by investing in different plans and funds (both equity and debt market), Nandgopal said, adding that it also provides financial support for managing health expenses along with life coverage.
Earlier this month, LIC had announced its health insurance foray with a long-term unit-linked product, which offers a joint health insurance cover to the entire family (husband, wife and children), hospital cash benefit and major surgical benefit along with a unit-linked component designed to meet domiciliary treatment expenses.
Reliance Life CEO said that with an annual premium as low as Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per annum, the insured can get health and saving benefits and meet unexpected medical bills, he added.
Available in ready-made and tailor-made options, the plan provides lump sum benefit to take care of hospitalisation expenses, which include daily hospitalisation costs, intensive care unit expenses and post-hospitalization spending in the form of recuperation benefits.
Speaking on premium collection, Nandgopal said the company expects to garner about Rs 2,500 crore first premium income during the current fiscal against Rs 930 crore collected last year.
The company already has collected about Rs 1,400 crore in the first nine months, he said.
With the foray into health insurance, the company expects the new product to contribute 35-40 percent of the total sales of the January-March quarter, 2008.
"We expect a significant business growth on the back of this product, as so far, people have not been provided with adequate choice of quality insurance products," he said.
The new scheme will provide policy-holder all health insurance benefits with all features of ULIP for maximum flexibility and liquidity, minimising risk, maximising returns and averaging cost of units.
The plan also contains health insurance coverages with a bouquet of riders available for all lives under the policy and has significantly lower charges and free switches for best risk appetite fund.
"This is the only plan that provides such additional value with a maturity benefit at the end of the policy term" he added.
Source: DDNEWS
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