What is Bima Sugam and Who Will Benefit from it?

So, what is Bima Sugam all about and how is it going to make any difference in benefitting the common man. Recently, IRDAI has approved the Bima Sugam scheme which when translated means ‘Easy Insurance’. Now, IRDAI has notified every insurance company in the country to join this Bima Sugam scheme and be a part of it by 2023. It is said that the Bima Sugam can lead to some huge reforms in the insurance sector in India and help in promoting the goal of ‘insurance for all’ in India.

What is Bima Sugam?

Bima Sugam portal is an online platform which is likely to serve as a one-stop destination for all your insurance requirements. Like the shopping and other apps that you use on a regular basis, Bima Sugam will act as your centralized marketplace for insurance requirements where you can shop for every insurance product offered by each and every insurance company.

Hence, Bima Sugam will make it easily accessible to look for insurance under a single roof for everyone includings inurance brokers, agents, aggregators, banks, and so on.  Bima Sugam will allow insurance aggregators to facilitate hassle-free purchase of insurance policies to customers through Bima Sugam.

Further, Bima Sugam will be responsible for the sale, claims and servicing of insurance policies. This will limit the need of policyholders to visit the home branch of the insurer to avail any specific service. This might also reduce the margin of distributors and let the policyholders avail reasonable premiums. In addition, the policyholder might also be able to avail discounts for policies purchased via Bima Sugam.

How is Bima Sugam Going to Help Common People?

Bima Sugam online will allow the policyholders to have their own e-Bima accounts. The insured can keep a check on all their insurance related details under these accounts. Whether it is health, life, motor or any other insurance policy, all the details can be accessed by the policyholder anytime.

In addition, the policyholder can get the below services from Bima Sugam:

• You can purchase insurance policies
• You can have agent portability facility
• You can get access to services related to claim settlement
• You can also access policy portability etc.

Further, Bima Sugam will allow the policyholder access to monitor all their policy related queries under this one platform. So, you can change the nominee and contact details, pay a premium and so on. It will also reduce the risk of theft or loss of policy papers. Moreover, it will allow IRDAI to recognize any fraud practices followed in the insurance sector.

Funding and Ownership of Bima Sugam

The Sugam Bima insurance platform will be mainly funded by insurance companies. Life insurance companies are likely to hold a 30% stake in Bima Sugam, while 30% stake will be held by general insurance companies.