Coimbatore, July 20 (PTI): With medical care and health services expenditure in India registering 6.5 per cent growth, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is making efforts to strengthen its position in health insurance space, a senior company official said yesterday.

Ending its financial year 2006-07 on an upswing and strengthening its leadership position among the private life insurers in India, the company has launched Hospital Care to cover over 1,000 surgical procedures and hospitalisation, Anup Rau, Vice President of the company told reporters here.

Saying that the people were concerned that the policies were not long-term and that once a claim was made, it might not be renewed or will attract a higher premium, Rau said that ICICI Prudential has launched the new product to fill this gap in health insurance and offer customers control over their health spends.

The policy was structured to ensure customers receive a pre-determined insurance amount for each procedure or hospitalisation, even if they spend less, he said.

Its long-term design of a term between 10-20 years, assured policy holders the guaranteed cushion of insurance cover even if they make a claim during the term, Rau claimed.

The new products would available for individuals between the ages of 1-60 years and also one of the first products that would cover people upto the age of 80 yeras, he said.