Star Health and Allied Insurance Company has launched two new products — a health policy with dual benefits and a policy to provide basic health cover to couples with an offer to take care of child delivery expenses up to a limit.
Star Unique Health Insurance policy will provide hospitalisation benefits. It will also cover any pre-existing diseases after a waiting period of 11 months. This policy can be a boon for persons who are perceived to be hypertensive or diabetic. This cover will be for people in the 18-65-age category.
According to a release, the policy can be renewed up to 70 years. Thereafter, cover will be extended under an equivalent scheme with continuity of benefits, the release adds. This policy is also available for HIV positive patients. There is a rider, though. The CD 4 counts of these patients should not be less than 350. Treatment for HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections, however, will not be covered under this policy, says the release. This policy will have a two-tier premium rate structure. For people residing in select notified cities, the premium will be higher. According to V. Jagannathan, Chairaman-cum-Managing Director, this is because of the higher cost of treatment in these cities.
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The Star Wedding Gift Insurance policy is for couples. It offers cover for basic health and also provides for child delivery expenses with an upper limit.
The waiting period will be 36 months for availing additional benefit (child delivery expenses) under the policy. The minimum qualifying age is 18 and the cover will be available up to 40 years. The policy will be available for couples who have already a child. Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Jagannathan said Star Health had grossed a premium of Rs.950 crore till December 2010. He was confident that the premium would scale to Rs.1,250 crore by the end of the current financial year. The paid-up capital of the company, he said, had gone up to Rs.202 crore following injection of funds by ICICI Venture Fund. With this, ICICI Venture Fund holds 14 per cent share in Star Health. Foreign holding is 20 per cent. The special purpose vehicle, comprising industrialists, holds 62 per cent.
The balance is held by others. Mr. Jagannathan said the company had enough funds to take care of the business growth over the next one year.
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