Sri Lanka’s fastest-growing life insurer, Softlogic Life, made its entry into the previously untapped micro-insurance market recently with the introduction of Postal Life Insurance Policies. The company intends to introduce these life solutions by leveraging a key partnership with the Sri Lankan Postal department’s island-wide network of post offices.
Ensuring every Sri Lankan’s right to health and life insurance, Softlogic Life has introduced two policy plans of Rs. 150,000 and Rs. 300, 000 which cover both natural and accidental deaths. The uniqueness of these covers is that the person signing up for the protection can add his or her life partner into the cover as well. In the case of hospitalization, both the policy owner and the beneficiary are eligible for several attractive benefits.
“Universal access to health coverage and healthcare is a basic human right and as such, should be worked towards ensuring all Sri Lankans to have access in any form or manner. By having a health or life insurance cover, people can avert themselves from the financial burden of sudden events, such as the loss of a loved one or falling ill. For these sudden needs, it is always better to set aside a sum of money every month through an insurance cover which gives us fundamental stability, interms of providing the ability to give best of healthcare possible or the ability to provide a stable life for the family after the breadwinner’s death and therefore mental freedom. Overall, insurance penetration in Sri Lanka has been at 1.26% in 2018, which means healthcare expenditure is borne by individuals, apart from the few who are covered under health/critical illness insurance policies.” Softlogic Life Managing Director, Iftikar Ahamed said.
Further he stated, “At Softlogc Life, our vision is to uplift the quality of lives of all Sri Lankans and we believe that providing comprehensive, universally relevant, long-term healthcare insurance policies which ensure affordable access to healthcare for all Sri Lankansis a great means of achieveing that. In this spirit, Softlogic Life is proud to present the Postal Insurance Policy, which will allow any individual across the island to access the best healthcare facilities at an affordable price.,”.
The Postal Life Insurance from Softlogic Life can be now obtained from over 8000 postmen or post office counters across Sri Lanka. Customers can register for the service, pay monthly instalments and request claims by using a mobile phone. Every transaction that has taken place will be communicated to the customer through an SMS.
“Insurance in Sri Lanka is a significantly under-penetrated segment when compared to other regional countries like Thailand and Malaysia. It is important that untapped segments of the population have access to affordable healthcare as it is a universal right and as one of the oldest and most highly spread networks in Sri Lanka, we are extremely proud to be the platform through which they will have access to better life insurance solutions. We are happy that over 8000 postal workers across the nation will be utilised to support this endeavour, initiated by a 100% home-grown brand like Softlogic Life,” said Post Master General, Mr. Ranjith Ariyaratne said.
Any person between the ages of 16 and 60 are eligible for the postal insurance that could be obtained for themselves or add their life partners to their policy. Personal coverage packages include one for Rs. 150 or Rs.300 per month. If a life partner is added, packages upto Rs. 250 or Rs. 300 per month. Under these different packages, policyholders can sign up for coverage that can go up to a maximum of Rs. 1 million.
