There is a new plan "ICICI Pru Health Saver" in market. This is being called as ULIP and which boast of availing tax benefits u/s 80D for the entire amount invested.
Being a ULIP, Because of benefits u/s 80D It looks attractive.
Here is the analysis of the same for your Benefit.
Earlier the combo of Health Plan & ULIP was available from LICas well as Reliance but in both these policies, the 80D benefit was notavailable on investment part. So ICICI Prudential Life Ins. cos. hasmoved with this cleverly drafted policy. Here the investment part of urprem. or in other words fund value can only be redeemed against medicaltreatment/expenses. This policy is a combo of usual mediclaim policy & ULIP. Just dig deep into the skin of this policy & you will come to know the real truth.
First understand what this policy offers?
Apart from a normal mediclaim benefit, due to investment component from3rd policy years onwards u can claim more than ur standard Sum assuredwith a ceiling set by company. Say ur original SA is 3L Rs, aftercompleting 3 policy years u can claim a normal claim of 3L rs. undermediclaim benefit & another 20% of ur accumulated fund value. Inother words u can redeem ur fund upto 20% value of fund. This fundvalue ceiling `ll increase with the years pass & after 10 policyyears u can claim 100% of fund value.
As per the product brochure of this plan, This policy can be taken as individual plan as well as family floater plan.
Here r the negative aspects of this plan.
High Prem. allocation charges - 20% for 1st year, 2 & 3 year 9%, 4-10 years 2% & Nil from 11 year onwards.
In case of family floater option, in case of death of primaryinsured(the eldest member of family), the policy `ll be terminatedimmediately.
Regular prem. pmt. is compulsory for first 5 years for covercontinuance option i.e if u don`t want to pay prem. in future to keeppolicy in force u `ll have to pay prem. for first 5 years.
No surrender of policy is allowed except the first 15 day free look period window.
Ins. charges for general mediclaim policy as well as policy admincharges `ll be recovered by cancellation of UNITs which `ll impact useverely in prolong bearish phases like the current one.
For individual plan option the mly. policy admin charge is 60 Rs. where as for family floater option the same is 90 Rs.
A long list of exclusion, which I can`t post here in this limited space of MMB.
Actually the health saving option of this policy is similar to ourgeneral practice of dipping into our savings to sat off the medicalbills.
Plz. note the prem. for general mediclaim benefit(known as Hospitalinsurance benefit in this policy) `ll be charged on ur actual age everymonth by cancellation of ur UNITs. this is not the case in normalmediclaim policies of Gen. ins. cos. where u pay prem. as per age bandof say 31-35, 36-40. Again this monthly cancellation of UNITs `limpact more in case of bear phases as more UNITs `ll be cancelled topay insurance prem. per month.
For individual Plan - Min. entry age is 25 years completed & max. age is 55 years.
For family floater Plan - Min. entry age is 90 days & max. age is 55 years.
In each of the above policy the maturity age is common i.e. 75 years.
Recommendation
The same effect of mediclaim & saving can be achieved by purchasinga cheaper mediclaim policy as well as investing the surplus amount asper our comfort level in Eq. or Debt funds or anywhere else. So thispolicy should be avoided.