CHENNAI, APRIL 5: Star Health and Allied Insurance Co has come out with a policy to provide cover for individuals who have undergone heart surgery — bypass or stenting procedures. Announcing the launch of the new policy, V. Jagannathan, Chairman and Managing Director of Star Health and Allied Insurance Co Ltd, said that this is the first such policy in the country offering complete cover for heart patients who have already undergone a surgery. “A fair percentage of people who have had heart surgeries undergo repeat surgery for the same ailment. This certainly drains out the financial position of a normal family,” S. Prakash, Executive Director, Star Health Insurance, pointed out. The product has two plans — a sum insured of Rs 4 lakh (gold plan) and Rs 3 lakh (silver plan) — and is available for persons in the age group 10-65 years. The policy, which is about 20 per cent more expensive than any normal health policies, will cover pre-existing cardiac ailments from the 91{+s}{+t} day of inception. However, Jagannathan said it is not necessary for normal health insurance policyholders to migrate to the new product once they undergo a bypass surgery or stenting. Elaborating on the viability of the scheme, he said the company may not make any big profits in this scheme. “If we sell Rs 20-crore worth policies, we would not lose any money,” he said. The Chennai-headquartered company, which currently operates from 720 branches across the country, hopes to earn around Rs 50 crore this financial year from the new product, ‘Star Cardiac Care’. According to Jagannathan, the company is on track to make an underwriting profit of at least Rs 80 crore during the current financial year, and break-even. In 2012-13, the company earned premium income of Rs 900 crore, around 90 per cent of which came from the retail market (individuals). Tata Capital Growth Fund recently took a 14 per cent stake in the company with an investment of Rs 120 crore.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 16:01:57 +0000
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