Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company on Thursday launched two retail products in health and home insurance segments.
The health insurance scheme, Chola Individual Healthline (IHL), will cover hospitalisation and day-care expenses and also offer outpatient coverage for dental and eye care treatments and maternity-related expenses. The policy also covers hospitalisation for ayurveda treatment.
Individuals up to 55 years of age without any medical check-up and up to 65 years with medical check-up are covered. It has three plan options namely standard, superior and advanced for sum insured up to Rs. 10 lakh.
The other product, Chola Total Home Protect, is designed to cover home structure, contents (including jewellery and valuables) and the inhabitants. This is a flexible insurance plan suited for both home owners and tenants.
It provides additional cover for baggage loss, personal accident, public liability, plate glass cover and workmen's compensation. The premium for the policy is as low as Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 per day.
Addressing presspersons here, S. S. Gopalarathnam, Managing Director, said with increasing prosperity and stress levels, people were susceptible to various healthcare risks and the company would continue to introduce many new products under the health category. The aim was to become a significant player in the health insurance market. “We expect our retail health portfolio contributing Rs. 100 crore of GWP (gross written premium) in 2011-12,” he said.
With medical inflation going up at 20 per cent per annum which was much higher than the income growth of individuals, health insurance would grow rapidly in the years to come, he said.
Explaining the salient features of the health insurance product, S. Shivakumar, Senior Vice-President (marketing and new initiatives), said, cashless hospitalisation was available across 2,600 network partner hospitals.
Other features include direct claims settlements, free health check-up in every two claim-free years and portability from existing health insurance with continuity benefits. On the home protect insurance policy, he said the scheme would cover building structure (own house only) against fire, allied perils and terrorism.
It would offer cover for construction cost value from Rs. 5 lakh onwards. The contents are covered against fire, burglary, earthquake and terrorism and the sum insured would be from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh.
Household appliances are covered against electrical and mechanical breakdown for the sum insured up to Rs. 12.50 lakh.
The company achieved a gross written premium of Rs. 968 crore in 2010-11 and reported an operating profit of Rs. 38.80 crore. For the current financial year, it was expecting to achieve Rs. 1,400 crore premium.