LIC targets Rs5,000 crore from health insurance

Venkatachari Jagannathan
17 November 2007

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is all set to profit from health insurance. Venkatachari Jagannathan reports

Chennai: Asian life insurance giant, Life Insurance Corporation of India, hopes to mop up around Rs5,000 crore selling its novel unit-linked health insurance policy.

Interestingly, its three-months target is more than the Rs3,200 crore in health insurance premium earned by the 13 Indian non life insurers - 12 general insurers and one specialised health insurer - during 2006-07.

Hoping to get Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority''s (IRDA) sanction for the product soon, LIC plans to launch its product some time in December 2007 or January 2008.

The timing is also right as January-March are busy months for life insurers as people buy policies to save on their taxes. With an army of around 10 lakh agents LIC plans to sell around 1 crore policies during this period.

To cope with the expected sales, the life insurer''s technology team is already getting the software ready to sell the product.

Declining to comment on the product features G N Agarwal, executive director (actuarial), says, "We have filed the product with IRDA. They have called us for a meeting on the subject. I am not in a position to detail you anything more about the product."