MUMBAI, August 15, 2022 (TBNN)
Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (L.I.C.) is keen to re-enter the mediclaim segment as and when the regulator provides clarity on the issue, its chairman said.
We are already doing a lot of long-term health protection and guaranteed health products. We are evaluating the suggestion that the regulator I.R.D.A.I. made recently, L.I.C. Chairman M.R. Kumar told the Press when asked about the same during its earnings call over the weekend.
The chairman further said I don’t think it will be difficult for us as we already offer some of the health products.
Medi-claim policies, which are indemnity-based health plans, are the best-selling health insurance products in the country.
However, in 2016, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India asked life insurers to withdraw indemnity-based health plans from the market. Life insurers, since then, have been allowed to offer only fixed benefit health plans. Under indemnity-based health insurance plans, the insurer provides reimbursement for the money spent on medical treatment up to the sum insured.
For fixed benefit health insurance plans, a fixed amount is paid out of the sum insured for pre-determined illnesses or medical conditions. Recently, the new I.R.D.A.I. Chairman Debasish Panda said it was time life insurers re-entered the health vertical as he had given a mandate to the industry to ensure that every citizen has a health insurance policy by 2030.
However, Panda later clarified that the regulator was only evaluating the pros and cons of allowing life insurers to sell health insurance policies and that no decision has been taken yet. Globally, in most markets, life insurers sell health policies.
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