National Insurance Company will soon introduce a new health insurance scheme for top level corporate personnel which will take care of their treatments even if they have to go abroad for such purposes.
The new product, to be marketed as the `Traded Disease Cover,' will come into operation from July 1. This is a benefit scheme. Under this cover, the financial cost of treatments of diseases like cancer, kidney failure, organ transplantation, multiple sclerosis and heart disease will be met by the insurance company.
The insurance company will make payments to a person covered under this scheme if it is diagnosed that he or she is suffering from any of the listed diseases. For entitlement of the benefit, the insured person will have to survive for at least 30 days.
K N Bhandari, general manager, National Insurance, said that the top level personnel prefer to undergo treatment abroad as sophisticated facilities are not available in the country. Hence, the company will pay to the covered person the sum assured, after diagnosis, for undergoing treatment at a place of his\her choice.
The 30-day waiting period is introduced to prevent insurance cover at the last stage of an ailing person.
Most of the diseases are terminal in nature, and treatment costs will have to be ensured by the company to exclude any possibility of death benefit to a covered person.
Since the `traded disease cover' is aimed at meeting the requirements of corporate bodies as a niche product, the premium rates are expected to be high. While the maximum sum assured will be Rs 25 lakh, the minimum sum will be Rs 5 lakh. A person under this cover will be paid the entire amount for which he\she has sought cover after the diagnosis of the disease.
However, for heart diseases, only 20 per cent of the sum assured will be paid. The company feels that adequate medical and surgical facilities are available in India, and hence full benefit of the sum assured will not be required by a heart patient since he will not have to go abroad for treatment.
National Insurance will continue to market Mediclaim policies as a mass-need product.
The `traded disease cover' will be an additional health window for the premium sections of the society. The company feels that they will be able to sell about 5,000 such policies in the next two years.
