Star Health and Allied Insurance Co Ltd., on Thursday, rolled out a more expansive diabetes insurance policy, called Star Diabetes Safe.
According to Chairman and Managing Director V. Jagannathan, the new “first-of-its-kind” policy would cover a diabetic person’s regular hospitalisation expenses, irrespective of the number of years the person may have been living with disease.
Also, the pre-insurance medical test is only optional. “We had a diabetes policy that didn’t cover too much earlier. But now we are bringing out policies that are custom made based on the rising needs of our customers,” said Mr. Jagannathan.The policy covers all the complications of Type I and Type II diabetes—including heart-related problems. Though the entry age for the policy is 18 to 65 years, renewal is allowed life-long. The sum insured options range from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh.
According to Mr. Jagannathan, the company has also crossed the Rs. 1,000-crore gross premium mark and is targeting the Rs. 1,500 crore mark next financial year. “We may look to pump in around Rs. 120 crore by the middle of the next year as we are growing very fast,” he said.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) Chairman T.S Vijayan, who was at the product launch, said that the regulator had taken steps to study whether unfair discounts were being given to group insurance policies. “We will study this issue of whether all policyholders are being treated equitably. We are collecting more data on it and will come out with findings,” he said.
