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Mumbai has the highest number of insurance policies which cover critical illnesses including ailments related to tobacco consumption, said an ICICI Lombard Tobacco Consumption Habits 2014 survey.
The survey said that overall, less than half of the respondents own a health insurance policy. In Mumbai, two-thirds of the respondents at Mumbai have a health insurance policy. It further said that overall, four-fifth of the respondents own a health insurance policy which covers normal hospitalisation costs. Respondents with policy covering critical illness is higher in Mumbai than other cities.
Overall, almost half of the respondents have not disclosed their smoking / chewing tobacco habits in the insurance policy declaration. The willingness of non-owners of health insurance policy to buy one in next 6 months was also very low, since only 1 in 4 respondents are willing to buy a health insurance policy.
Almost 1 in 3 owners / intenders fear rejection of health insurance policy due to smoking habits. This fear is higher in Mumbai as compared to other cities. While 8 in 10 respondents feel health insurance is a necessity, about three-fourth of the respondents consider health insurance as a tax saving investment.
Sanjay Datta, Chief – Underwriting & Claims, ICICI Lombard said, “The findings clearly indicate that lot needs to be done to motivate people to quit unhealthy habits related to tobacco consumption as well as opt for health insurance for their financial safety”.
The ‘ICICI Lombard Tobacco Consumption habits 2014’ survey reveals various trends and patterns of tobacco product consumption, triggering factors behind taking up tobacco consumption, frequency of consumption, hindrances in giving up etc. According to the survey findings, over 70% started tobacco consumption with cigarettes and over 90% never tried to quit the habit of smoking/chewing tobacco but started again. Tobacco consumption remained unchanged for two-third of respondents in the last 2-3 years. The average per day consumption of cigarette and pan masala stood at 6 to 7 times.
The survey had a sample size of 1111 people and covered Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. It covered males & females aged 21-40 years who are habitual smokers currently smoking at least once a day / people who consumes at least one pouch packet of gutka /pan masala containing tobacco.
