Kolkata, Saturday, October 9, 2010: Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Life announced its foray into health insurance and expects to rake in premiums to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore from the new business in the next five years.

Speaking at the launch of the product -- Reliance Life Care for You Plan -- Reliance Life President and Executive Director Malay Ghosh said that from the health insurance product, the company is eyeing a premium of Rs 150 crore in the first year, which is likely to touch Rs 2,000 crore over the next five years.

Overall, Reliance Life is targeting a new premium income of Rs 12,000 crore in next five years.

"We are growing 20 per cent each year. We intend to earn a premium income of Rs 12,000 crore in five years time," Ghosh said.

Of Rs 12,000 crore, life insurance premium would be around Rs 10,000 crore. In FY10, the company earned a new premium of Rs 3,921 crore.

Referring to health insurance, Ghosh said that the maximum age which a person can take a cover was 75 years.

"As per wish of chairman Anil Ambani, we are thinking whether this can be made life long. We need to have the relevant data for that," he said.

The policy term under this plan is three years with the premium fixed for the entire period, irrespective of the claims. The plan offers sum insured of up to Rs 10 lakh.

The company along with its third party administrators has created a preferred network of over 6,000 hospitals, among the largest hospital network offered by any insurer, across the country to provide cashless hospitalisation benefit to the customers.

"Our venture into the health insurance sector is a natural extension of our life insurance business. 'Reliance Life Care For You' is our first step in the pure health Insurance space, aimed to help people meet their health care exigencies and expenses at every stage of life effectively," Ghosh said.

The company aims to be among the top three health insurers by 2012.

Ref: Financial Express