Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that public sector general insurance companies had not withdrawn cashless mediclaim facility. "The public sector general insurance companies have not, I am emphasising on, have not revised or withdrawn the facility of cashless treatment," he said in the Lok Sabha. Mr Mukherjee said that the insurance firms have only started rationalising empanelment of hospitals and the standardisation of rates and specified procedures followed by these hospitals. From July 1, public sector insurance companies had suspended about 150 hospitals from their list of preferred provider network (PPN) which provide cashless hospitalisation services to policy holders under the mediclaim scheme. Last week, insurance regulator Irda chairman J Harinarayan had expressed hope that hospitals and insurers will be able to arrive at a mutual solution.
ICICI Pru LifeTime and ICICI Pru Lifestage are Unit Linked Pension Plans. Such insurance linked retirement plans are neither good investments nor do they offer sufficient insurance cover. As you can see, these have turned out to be bad deals. In the Lifetime plan, the fund value is not even equal to the total premiums that you have paid and in the Lifestage plan your return is just about 6% which is quite low. The mortality charges are as per your age which is why they have increased. Moreover, once these plans matures, you will have to compulsorily opt for annuity (regular income) and the annuity rates are generally modest. Assuming these plans mature in the next one year, it will be wise to surrender the plan now and curb your future commitments. Before you choose to buy a term plan, you have to consider a few points. You need to insure yourself, only during the time you are working and your family is financially dependent on you. At the age of 59, not all insurance companies w...
