Max Life launches new plan covering 64 critical diseases

The latest critical illness and disability rider from Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd covers up to 64 critical illnesses, which is one of the highest in the industry. A rider is an add-on cover to a life insurance policy, paying a defined benefit in case of critical illness or disability. It can be attached to any of Max Life’s 11 savings-oriented or pure protection plans.

Along with the rider, the insurer, launched Max Fit, a wellness programme offering discounts on renewal premium on maintaining a healthier lifestyle. Some of the critical illnesses that the rider covers are angioplasty, open heart replacement or repair of heart valves, permanent paralysis of limbs and Alzheimer’s disease.

“We have tried to come up with a comprehensive plan, focusing on perhaps the widest range in the industry possible in the case of critical illnesses. The rider also covers total and permanent disability, which is not there in many products,” said Prashant Tripathy, Managing Director and CEO, Max Life.

The rider comes in five options and the number of critical illnesses covered varies from 22 to 64 depending on the variant. The premium pricing will also depend on the variant and the age of the policyholder.

Max Fit app, which will be exclusive with the rider, is the company’s first product in the health and wellness space.

“Health and immunity as a space is getting more and more relevant, and what we are trying to do is to cover that market by providing access to this app, which links one’s health by creating incentives to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which a customer can come on this platform and do a health assessment,” said Tripathy.

The app records the customer’s steps and counts them to figure out how many healthy weeks a customer has accumulated.

A healthy week is calculated as a total of 50,000 steps per week, with only a maximum of 15,000 steps considered per day. A policyholder can claim a maximum discount of 10% on renewal premium if he or she accumulates more than 36 such healthy weeks.

The wellness benefit will not be available when availing of the total and partial disability variant, and will be only available for the first five policy years.

The rider will get terminated upon the death of the insured or on payment of 100% rider sum assured. The sum assured payout may differ based on the variant of the rider and the severity of the conditions.