Religare -Swiss Reinsurance Joint Venture for Health Insurance

A joint venture health insurance company in India is being formed by Religare Enterprises Ltd and Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss Re). An agreement has been agreement in this regard by the two parties.



Swiss Re will be a minority shareholder and will seek to provide its actuarial, risk management and underwriting expertise to the new venture.



The proposed joint venture will seek to commit sufficient investment to achieve a successful launch of the business, which Religare and Swiss Re anticipate will be operational by 2010.



The proposed joint venture will further strengthen Religare’s diversified portfolio and bolster its presence in the insurance domain.

Portability of Health Insurance Policy on the Anvil

Switching policies from health insurance providers will be possible soon according to IRDA and this will be done without any change in premiums. The issues with health insurance portability are being sorted out.

Some of the issues are:

Exchange of data

Bonus transfer

Two policies could be dissimilar.



To overcome these and other hassles the General Insurance Council has designed sort of basic health plan which can be completely portable.

The present health insurance policy holder is given health cover for a year and the same has to be renewed every 12 months. If there is no claim, the policy holder is entitled to a bonus in the form of increased sum and for every claim-free year, this bonus gets accumulated.

After the expiry of the term, if one intends to switch over to a new company, the accumulated bonus is not carried forward and one has to start all over again.