Detariffing to speed up health insurance growth.
MUMBAI: The insurance regulator expects health insurance to be the second-largest premium earner for insurance companies, after motor insurance within the next three years. According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), health insurance in India is expected to grow larger than fire insurance business after complete detariffing....

Insurance industry seeks more tax benefits for health covers.
MUMBAI: You may soon have an extra incentive to buy health cover for you and your family. That is, if the finance minister P Chidambaram announces an increase in the tax deduction limit under section 80 D for health insurance premium in the upcoming budget. Currently, the section 80D...

Purge health insurance of padding.
Byline: Vinay Pandey NEW DELHI: The public sector general insurance companies have hiked health insurance premium for almost all age groups. In the case of one insurer, depending on the age group, the increase has ranged from 15% to nearly 100%. Predictably, the hike is highest in...

New India plans health insurance for young.
MUMBAI: Your health insurance premium may soon dependent on the place you live, your age and income. New India Assurance - the country's largest general insurance player - has submitted a new medical insurance product - where the premium will be determined by age, income and geography-for...

LIC bets big with new health insurance plan.
Byline: Hema Ramakrishnan & Mayur Shetty MUMBAI/HYDERABAD: Life Insurance Corporation of India expects to provide cover to at least one crore families within a year of the launch of its new health insurance product. It is also planning to launch a special senior citizen's health insurance policy...

Private health insurance: a threat to Medicare.
The dramatic growth in the government financial subsidy to private health insurance (PHI) if continued, will inevitably cripple Medicare and force up health costs. Projecting Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (AIHW) recorded premium rates, the PHI subsidy will cost $4.8 billion in 2007-08. In addition, there is a...

DRL eyes health insurance, organised pharma retail.
Byline: Gunjan Pradhan Sinha HYDERABAD: DR Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) is eyeing an entry into health insurance and pharma retail as part of its ambitious plan to diversify in the health business. The growing business opportunities in both these segments could be the trigger. "We have...

Fewer lack health insurance, but 5.7 percent still not covered.
Byline: John J. Monahan BOSTON -A new survey estimates that the number of uninsured in Massachusetts has fallen by about 40,000 since the state's health insurance reform program got under way last year, but 355,000 residents, or 5.7 percent, are still not covered. The survey...

Is our health-care system sick? What teens need to know about health insurance.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If you think health insurance is an issue that matters only to older adults, you should talk to Adam Caron, 21, a sports radio producer in Birmingham, Ala. Because Caron's a part-time employee, the radio station not pay for his health insurance, and he is...

Children's Health Insurance.
ITEM: "The Children's Health Insurance Program has suddenly become a vehicle for an ideological struggle between President Bush and Congress over the future of the health care system," reported Robert Pear in the New York Times for August I. "But in the short term, members of both parties say,...