Hyderabad, Dec 28:
Continuing its effots to improve insurance penetration through more standard products for the customers, the insurance regulator IRDAI has asked all the general insurers and health insurers to launch a mandatory( for the specified insurers) “standard travel product'’ from 1st April, 2021 onwards.
Currently, there are five variants under domestic travel and four variants under overseas travel.Other than plan variants specified,no other plant variant is allowed to be offered under standard travel product,said the IRDAI on Monday..
In order to deepen the penetration of travel insurance, which provides safety net to every individual who is undertaking travel, it is considered essential to have a standard travel product,said the IRDAI.
This standard travel product can be launched without prior approval of the IRDAI and will have common benefits and policy wordings across the industry.
The policy tenure of the standard product will be the duration of the journey of policyholder as a fare paying passenger and during their stay at overseas, in case of overseas travel policy, as specified in the policy schedule.
There will no restrictions on entry and exit ages for the `standard travel product.However, for the individuals upto age of 18 years, the proposer should be more than 18 years of age.
There will be no co-payment and deductibles under the product for claims payment.
The family for the purpose of `standard travel product’ will consists of the proposer and any one or more of the family members including legally wedded spouse, parents and parents-in-law, dependent children (i.e. natural or legally adopted) between day one of birth to 25 years if attending as a full time student of a recognized institution who are unmarried, who permanently reside with the Insured person at the country of residence.
As per reports, around 36 per cnt of Indian households undertake trips for one purpose or other both within and outside the country.
Standard product may be distributed across all distribution channels including Point of Sale persons and Common Public Service Centres. Distribution of standard product will be governed by the regulations of concerned distribution channels.
According to the IRDAI, though, there are a number of travel insurance products available in India, the penetration of travel insurance is yet to take off.
Further, each product has unique features and the insuring public may find it difficult to choose an appropriate product.
Meanwhile, the IRDAI has asked the health and general insurers to provide illustration to bring out clear distinction between availability of coverage under family floater basis and on individual basis vis-à-vis the premium payable.
“Where it is not possible to present the illustration considering coverage of all the indicative ages under a single policy as per the product design, insurers will present two separate illustrations covering as many number of age bands, as possible,'' said the IRDAI..
Insurers are required to adopt the norms on or before 1st April, 2021 without fail, said the IRDAI..