ING has improved its OneCare insurance offering with over 70 product enhancements, including new cover for a range of needle-stick injuries, pregnancy complications and high risk occupations.
The new features have been released under three different modules, Extra Care, Baby Care and Special Risk.
"Extra Care is a brand new cover type and incorporates terminal illness, accidental death and needle-stick injuries for medical professionals," ING Australia life risk head of marketing and retail products Mark Vilo said.
In relation to terminal illness, the cover was added to so people did not have to draw on life cover in place while the policyholder was still alive, a situation many claimants found themselves facing.
Accidental death was included to engage a younger market and perhaps draw on an intergenerational link.
"A lot of younger people feel they don't need life insurance but the statistics show that there is a high risk of accidents at those younger ages," Vilo said.
The needle-stick option is designed to cover medical workers, healthcare workers and specialists in the event of contracting HIV from their job situations and no longer being able to work as a result.
Extra Care can be purchased as an attachment to any of the OneCare products. Each option allows for up to $1 million cover for an individual.
The Baby Care option has been added to provide cover for pregnancy complications arising from the trend of women having children later in life.
It has three tiers of cover including complications of pregnancy, congenital abnormalities, and neo-natal or infant death or still birth. The first two tiers have a maximum sum insured of $50,000 while the third tier has a peak of $10,000.
This cover has a 12-month waiting period and is only available to women aged between 16 and 45.
Cover has also been added to allow new occupations income protection. These include miners, heavy blue collar workers and unskilled trades people.
The new features will be available for clients from May 5, 2008.
