ALL IN ONE INSURANCE POLICY

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Context

• The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is devising a new affordable bundled product called the All-in-one policy plan to give citizens protection against multiple risks, and seeking to expedite claim settlements by linking death registries onto a common industry platform.

About

• A new Bima Sugam platform will integrate insurers and distributors onto one platform to make it a one-stop shop for customers, who at a later stage can pursue service requests and settlement of claims through the same portal.
• The regulator is simultaneously developing a possible lynchpin product Bima Vistar that will be a bundled risk cover for life, health, property and casualties or accidents, with defined benefits for each risk that can be paid out faster than usual without the need for surveyors.

Aim

• To expand the poor insurance penetration in the country.

Features

• The initiatives are part of a broader overhaul, including legislative amendments to attract more investments through differentiated licences for niche players similar to the banking sector, with an eye on making insurance “available, affordable and accessible” to citizens with a ‘Gram Sabha- to district- to State-level’ approach.
• IRDA is striving to create an “UPI-like moment” in insurance through a plan worked out with general and life insurance firms that is termed as “Bima Trinity”.
• The third part of the trinity envisaged by the IRDA entails a women-centric workforce of Bima Vaahaks (carriers) in each Gram Sabha that will meet the women heads of each household to convince them that a composite insurance product like Bima Vistar can “come in handy if there is any distress”.
• The IRDA platform, if integrated with those registries, could help settle claims as fast as six to eight hours or a day at the most.

Mechanism

• All a policyholder needs to do is go to the platform, and use his consent to pull their policy from insurers’ repository and the death certificate.
• The engine at the back end will process the claim from the insurance company and put the money in the bank account within 6-8 hours or maximum, the next day, the claim settlement can be in the account of the policyholder.
• To meet the target of providing insurance cover for all by 2047, the IRDA is also looking to form State-level insurance committees similar to the ones prevalent in the banking sector, and rope in State governments to formulate district-level plans, he said at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s annual meeting.

ALL ABOUT IRDA: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/insurance-regulatory-and-development-authority-of-india