Not possible to honour smart cards under present circumstances: Hospitals

The Delhi Medical Association has expressed concern over what it called the “total failure” of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) initiated through the Delhi Government to provide free health care to persons belonging to the below poverty line by providing them an insurance of Rs. 30,000 which they could utilise in any hospital in the eventuality of ailment. “The scheme was launched with lot of fanfare and many people were enrolled into the scheme and provided a smart card.

Developing countries should take simple steps to deal with extreme climate events, but the world should not lose sight of cutting carbon emissions to protect life on Earth. Much has been written and discussed recently on the subject of climate change in response to growing scientific evidence that has been assessed and disseminated in recent years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Natural disasters, such as Japan's earthquake and floods in Australia and Thailand, cost the global economy a record $370 billion in 2011, with losses for the insurance industry the second largest ever, Swiss Re (SRENH.VX) said on Wednesday.

Insured catastrophe losses more than doubled in 2011 to $116 billion, Swiss Re said on Wednesday in its study of natural catastrophes and man-made disasters. That was up from a December forecast for $108 billion.

Insurance commissioners in California, New York and Washington State will require that companies disclose how they intend to respond to the risks their businesses and customers face from increasingly severe storms and wildfires, rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change, California’s commissioner said Wednesday.

Up until this point, those states required about a third of larger insurers to turn over the information in a survey; for all others it was voluntary.

Single-premium plan likely to be only for women initially; Centre, states to share premium for economically weaker sections.
Customers may soon get health, insurance and pension covers, as well as a scholarship for their daughter’s school education under one policy.

The single-premium policy, which the finance ministry is considering, is likely to be available only for women in the first phase. The premium will be shared by the Centre and the state governments concerned in the case of economically weaker sections.

The cyclone Thane in Tamil Nadu and Puduchery would have caused an economic loss of Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 2,000 crore, but the insurable loss is hardly Rs 100 crore. Though insurance companies are yet to assess the actual loss, initial estimates suggest that losses would be little over Rs 100 crore mainly from small and medium enterprises in that belt.

Mumbai The state-owned General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) — the sole official reinsurer— has mobilised support of almost $78 million from local general insurers for the proposed nuclear pool, which will provide cover to the existing as well as new nuclear plants in the country.

Considering that the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill provides for a cover of $320 million for operator liability for each event and each plant, GIC Re is seeking the cover for the rest (around $242 million) of the amount from overseas nuclear pools, including China Nuclear Insurance Pool.

Unlike the present system of allocation of funds to states on health care by the Centre, the high-level experts group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in its report to the Planning Commission have recommended “flexible” and “differential norms” for allocating finances to the states.

The report which is to be reviewed by the steering committee of the Planning Commission on health next week will take into account the recommendations of the HLEG before framing the 12 the Five-Year Plan.

Should government-run companies invest in tobacco companies? This is the question that Voices of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), an NGO working for cancer patients, has raised after its recent query under the RTI Act revealed that the Life Corporation of India has invested up to Rs 3,500 crore in various tobacco companies.

According to the guidelines, a policyholder will have to approach an insurer 45 days before his policy with the old insurer expires, to enable the new company consider his application. In a circular, the IRDA said that the acquiring insurer will verify the claims history from the common database, which will have two years of claims experience.