Insurance Companies

The Insurance Industry in India is going through gut wrenching times as policy paralysis,low margins,falling premiums and customer friendly policies of IRDA have hit the sector.The government has failed to increase the FDI cap on insurance investment which means that the companies face a capital crunch.Major industrial groups in India like Bharti, DLF, Relaince which had invested are trying to exit quickly though without much success.  The revenues are declining and the margins are abysmal.Insurance Industry is said to have massive potential given the fast growing GDP, increasing wealth and lack of insurance penetration.However this is a cyclical downturn for the insurance industry as it is for the whole economy. The downturn till now has not been pretty.The reasons for the down movement has been The results have been very bad for jobs in the insurance sector with employment in the private sector taking a massive hit.During 2010-11, one out of four people employed in the private life insurance sector lost their jobs in the country. For instance, total number of people employed by the top five life insurance companies as on March 31,  2011 stood at 60,215 as against 81,507 in the corresponding period last year. Also, these life…

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When we think of health insurance most of the prospects particularly, if they are young and married ask the first question is maternity covered in the Insurance.The fact is health insurance covers a person against illness, diseases, accidents, and hospitalisation which are unforeseen. The Point to be noted here is pregnancy is not a disease or illness and is more or less a certain event that can be expected. Hence the insurance companies were not covering maternity earlier unless it comes under a group such as (cover given by the employer to the employees). But the expenses arise out of maternity can be huge sometimes and also eat up the savings moderately. While maternity was not covered a few years back under individual health insurance schemes, Insurers off late have introduced plans with maternity cover under family floaters and individual health plans with additional premium. Also Read about how to go about making a  Health Claim in India  Group insurance covers with maternity benefits. Maternity covers under group are generally provided by the employers to their employees as follows a)    The employee (who is a female and works with the organisation) b)     The homemaker who is a spouse of the…

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Senior Citizen- Health Insurance A person who reaches an age of 60 years is known as senior citizen in India. Approximately 22% of the Indian population are senior citizens. As the person reaches the age of 60, he/she is prone to more diseases and at times with critical illnesses. Hence it becomes all the more important that a person should have a health insurance cover at this age since the earnings of the person may come down and may eat up the savings when an illness hits. The treatment will prove  to be costly affair. Many of the insurers were reluctant to give any health insurance policy once the person approaches an age of 60 in the past as they may face more claims but thanks to some of the government initiatives, many of the public and private insurers are offering the health insurance cover for the senior citizens. CGHS (Central Government Health scheme) The CGHS scheme was brought into effect way back in the year 1954. In which it covers the health care needs of the employees of the central government, semi government organizations, some recognised autonomous organisations, MP’s, accredited journalists, and freedom fighters etc are covered while they…

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