INSURANCE OF BODY PARTS: A SURPRISINGLY EXOTIC CONNOTATION

Insuring body parts has a surprisingly exotic connotation, despite the morbid subject matter. There are various insurance schemes covering property, life, health and automobiles, but until recently, nobody would have thought of having separate body parts insured. Now it is possible to have ther body parts insured with an insurance company. If you are a Footballer, you can insure your legs as this body part is aiding you to earn your bread and butter. This policy is usually taken by celebrities all over the world as they can afford the high expenses associated with it. Body part insurance is part of Specialty insurance which has already gained a good market abroad and is slowly gaining importance and acceptance in India too. Body part Insurance is usually taken and issued to celebrities who stand to lose from damage or injury to their body part and this policy indemnify the business loss to a celebrity for that part of their body or talent that is important for their business. Insurers abroad look at the health of celebrity, popularity, and his /her earnings from the talent or body part that they wish to insure. Celebrities from all over flock to Lloyd’s to have their most iconic bits financially insured, heaven forbid anything ever happens to them! Some of them are:

1. Kiss bassist Gene Simmon is known for his iconic tongue, and has insured it at a modest $1 million.
2. A middle finger? Really? Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones had his guitar-strumming middle finger insured for a cool $1.6 million.
3. Stunner Heidi Klum has her long legs insured for $2.2 million. Of the experience, she says: “Basically, I was in London, and I had to go to this place where they check out your legs. They would look at them and I had one scar here from when I fell on a glass, so this [left leg] isn’t as pricey as this [right] one.”
4. Iconic songstress Tina Turner had her ageless legs insured for $3.2 million.
5. Country singer Dolly Parton is hard to miss for two very large reasons! Her bouncy assets are insured for $3.8 million.
6. Singer Bruce Springsteen’s world-famous pipes are insured for $6 million.
7. You may have seen her wearing braces when she starred in “Ugly Betty” on TV, but the beautiful America Ferrera’s smile is insured for a whopping $10 million.
8. Is singer Rod Stewart’s voice worth more than Bruce Springsteen’s? Apparently so… Stewart’s raspy voice is insured for an astronomical $15.5 million.
9. Jennifer Lopez, the singer from the South Bronx has come a long way from her humble origins. Her infamous rear end is insured for an incredible $27 million.
10. We know he’s incredibly good looking, charming, and athletic… butthis amount? Soccer pro David Beckham’s legs are insured for a faint-worthy $70 million.

BODY PARTS INSURANCE IN INDIA:

This policy is usually taken by celebrities all over the world as they can afford the high expenses associated with it. Both United India Insurance Company and New India Assurance Company are open to body part insurance and they in case of such a request send the proposal to reinsurers who in turn evaluate the case and quote the premium on a case to case basis. ICICI Lombard GI claims to have offered a few such body part insurance in India. Majority of the insurers in India are skeptical about the future and viability of such insurance and prefer to offer regular Personal Accident cover to celebrities too. Several celebrities have insured their body parts. In india, Lata Mangeshkar has insured her voice for an undisclosed amount of money, Sania Mirza has insured her hands and Vijender Singh the Olympic boxer is going for body part insurance. Up until recent years, it was only Hollywood stars who reached into their pockets to pay steep premiums that kept their assets financially covered. Of late, however, several Indian stars have jumped on the bandwagon. Mallika Sherawat declared that she wanted to get her hot body insured. There was just one hitch — producers who signed her on would have to pay the premium! While it is believed that the actress was approached by an international insurance organisation with a proposal to insure her for a whopping 50 crores. This is still not known how things worked out for her.  After ‘Dostana’ catapulted his rear in tiny swimming trunks to fame, John Abraham decided to have it covered with a policy worth an alleged Rs 10 crore. While he never confirmed the actual amount, the actor did state that he had taken up the initiative. The Southern superstar Rajnikant has had his voice insured and copyrighted, so no one can imitate him without his consent!

Celebrities of course have a clear incentive to take out body parts insurance. The publicity alone arising from such a deal can easily pay for the premium, sometimes even the pay-out. It’s also a great way to remind adoring fans exactly what it is about a star that they love a great tush, stunning legs, even a smile. The body part becomes synonymous with the brand. However, most body parts here and overseas, are covered under more general insurance policies such as workers compensation and accident, dismemberment and disablement policies. Financially, these policies make much more sense for the average person as they cover many possibilities in one fell swoop. Insuring just one body part would be proportionately much more expensive and it would be like insuring your car for hitting a car but not a truck or a wall. It doesn’t make sense.

THE LIVES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE:

The lives of the ordinary people are at the mercy of the miscreants.  There is a threatening illegal trade of kidneys going on in many parts of the country.  The main reason behind this is that in almost all the big cities, towns and districts, private hospitals, nursing homes or clinics have cropped up, which are involved in illegal organ trade, especially kidney transplantation. In India the availability of medical transplants is lower than the requirement.  India needs about 1.5 lakh kidneys whereas only five or even thousand kidney are available to the ailing patients.  Therefore the illegal trade flourishes and there is an unholy nexus among the administration, police, private nursing home owners and a section of doctors.  They also appoint agents, who go to the poor, uneducated people in villages or towns and explain them about the benefits of selling organs.  These poor people are made to believe that there are two kidneys in a body and even if they give away one, they can very well survive.  They are illiterate, unaware and thus are easily lured into selling the kidneys in return of a miniscule amount of money. The private nursing homes have good arrangement for organ transplantation. Once the kidney is extracted from poor man’s body, it is sold to needy, wealthy patient at an exorbitant rate while the middleman earns a fortune in the process. Thus it is good that the Human Organ Transplant Act allows for the kidneys, heart, liver and corneas to be removed in the event of death from any cause for the purpose of transplantation and it which intends to curb the malpractices by increasing the penalty etc. for commercial dealings in human organs.  But in spite of that, there are rampant corruption and unlawful activities in the society.

WHY THE INSURANCE OF BODY PARTS?

India is a vast country and the use of vehicles is increasing day by day leading to fatal accidents and injuries.  So the country needs mobile hospitals on road.  Whenever any person dies due to mishaps, his organs needs to be immediately retrieved and transplanted by mobile health vans so that no time is wasted. In morgues, transplantation cannot take place at night and police also do not reach in time.  Something must be done in this regard.  Since there is more and more requirement of kidneys, the definition of near relatives must be widened to include uncle, aunts, maternal relatives etc.  It has been observed that even members of the lower class families get admitted to private hospitals for minor ailments.  They may not be aware of the danger that looms large because unknowingly they fall prey to the illegal organ traders who chop off their body parts in the name of treatment. This may also lead to increased number of deaths and other complications. The body parts insurance is because of certain reasons.  The first reason is that people want to live and this cover may allow them to live longer. Surprisingly this policy is not for the middle income group? As the insurance companies would not entertain requests for body part insurance until it is a celebrity. This kind of policy is adopted by companies mainly to popularize their brand through celebrity clients.

SALE OF HUMAN ORGANS:

There are cases where the poor people are selling their organs to the needy people through middlemen and to the corporate hospitals without being reported. The administrative machinery failed to look at this problem and punish the middlemen and corporate hospitals which are running such rackets. The illegal organ trade in the country has been a matter of great concern. The organ trade is continuing albeit less openly and in smaller numbers. It has been alleged that many members of Authorisation Committees take decisions regarding ‘affection and attachment’ of living donors which are based on financial considerations; thus one committee rejected only 22 out of 998 applications submitted to it for verifications of an emotional relationship. A further deterrent to donation and transplantation is because the results of heart and liver transplants performed in this country have not reached international standards so physicians are unwilling to refer patients till they are too ill to undergo an’ procedure. The cost for a liver transplant is also a prohibitive 15 to 40 lakhs. The solutions to these problems lie in making strenuous efforts to improve cadaver donation by increasing public awareness through the media and support for organisations like ORBC (Organ Retrieval and Banking Organisation) and Ganadarpan. Till this is done it is justifies to continue the live related donor programmes for the kidney and liver which are in place in many hospitals but which carry with them a risk, albeit small, to the donor, The Human Organ Transplant Act, 2009 has allowed the start of heart, live and lung transplantation programmes in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore. In Chennai 88 renal transplants have been done from cadavers in the past four years. What is sorely needed is to improve public awareness about the benefits of organ donation.

DONATIONS OF BODY PARTS:

There is need to encourage the people to donate organs voluntarily. We have seen people donating their eyes. There is a need to open eye banks and tissue banks in all district headquarters throughout the country to help the needy people. In respect of donation it has been seen that poor people living below the poverty line donating blood and selling human organs due to acute poverty. The experience shows that poor are often exploited as donors for the rich recipients.  They donate under compulsion of poverty.  There is a tremendous need for creating awareness to change the attitude of the general public towards organ donation. There is a need to incentivise organ donation and provide financial assistance for the transplantation of organ for the poor and the needy. There are hundreds and thousands of people who are waiting for organ transplantation. There should be an appeal to the State Governments and the entire nation to rise to the occasion and create an atmosphere where each and every individual feels proud to donate his or her organs and tissues for the welfare of the mankind. If the patient who died of brain-stem is less than 18 years of age, his parents can give written authorization for removal of any human organ for therapeutic purpose.  In case of dead body lying in a hospital or prison and not claimed by any of the near relatives within 48 hours from the time of death, the person in-charge of the prison or the hospital can authorize for removal of any organ from such body. Before authorization he has to make sure that near relatives are not likely to claim the body later. The Registered Medical Practitioner should take necessary steps for preservation of human organs so removed. Such removed organ can be transplanted to a near relative of the recipient. If the donor authorizes removal of any human body after his death, it can be transplanted to any recipient who may be in need of such human organ.

It is still possible to put a price on body parts under general insurance policies. The payout from dismemberment tends to depend on how critical that individual part is to your ability to function as this relates to the level of disablement. These celebrities can afford to pay the astronomical insurance premiums on these kinds of policies because they are wealthy and the insured body parts are essential to their work. These stars claim that the loss of use of these body parts would mean that they would no longer be able to generate an income. Essentially this would be the same as a driver losing his eyesight or a programmer losing the use of her hands. In addition, the particular bits of anatomy insured by these celebrities also remind their fans why these celebrities are so famous. When the news breaks that a star has insured a body part this provides ample amounts of press coverage and this can be an essential tool to keep them in the spotlight. Also, when a respected insurance company evaluates the rear end at millions of dollars, then negotiating the next film contract or record deal becomes a lot easier. Perhaps much of this insurance has been handled over the years at England’s Lloyd’s of London, that country seems to more than its share of odd policies. British food critic Egon Ronay insured his taste buds for $400,000; comic actor Ken Dodd insured his teeth for £4 million; and a cricket player named Merv Hughes took out a £200,000 policy on his moustache. But the most common celebrity insurance seems to be for legs. Betty Grable inspired a legion of celebrities to protect their golden gams. Entertainment Tonight’s Mary Hart has her legs insured for $1 million dollars, as does actress Angie Everhart. Jamie Lee Curtis insured hers for $1 million while doing advertisements for a stocking company and porn star Porshce Lynn has had her legs insured for the same amount. While there are sound business reasons for much of this, the insuring of attributes does have its limits. A British performer known as Mr. Methane sought coverage against the loss of his “talent,” which consisted of performing standards such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “How Much is That Doggy in the Window?” using his naturally-produced gases. He was refused.  Insuring a specific body part isn’t the kind of coverage that’s common or even financially feasible. It’s done by surplus lines insurers, which handle unusual risks not covered by standard insurance companies whom have to submit their rates to the state. When it comes to crafting a policy, a wide range of factors are considered. Some of the valuation is project-specific.

This insurance is still at its nascent stage in India and is customized depending upon the individuals. However, abroad, this type of insurance is like a lifestyle of the rich and famous. Since there is no set table of charts and such policies are always customized according to the requirement of the celebrity, so the premium is usually very high which gets renewed every year. However strange it may sound, yes, body part insurance, and especially of celebrities is definitely a very common practice in the western world, although not too popular in India yet! The trend has set in and is also catching up very soon. The general insurance do this type of insurance and, usually, the policy is for a year and renewed thereafter. Body part insurance is usually an add-on cover to the general accident and disability plan by insurers. Premiums are higher than a life cover for this type of insurance. Surprisingly, one category where one would expect lots of insured parts — the world of sports — yields one or two only. While one would expect that superstars like Kobe Bryant, Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens would have more insured arms that the United States military, it turns out that the sports world finds little time to quibble with details. Of course, some athletes are so successful — and so rich — that they are beyond insurance. Golfer Tiger Woods, for example, makes so much money that to insure himself against injury would cost him $10 million to $20 million a year, more than he made in 2002 from golf. Most of his money, more than $69 million a year, comes from endorsements. But luckily, non-sports celebrities do not have these restrictions, and keep themselves “covered” from head to toe. The policies do not protect against consequences of the aging process, nor do they cover “wear and tear” or “slippage. This sort of insurance isn’t recommended due to the high premiums.

About the Author

JAGENDRA KUMAR

Shriram General Insurance,
71/143, “Ramashram”, Paramhans Marg,
Mansarovar, JAIPUR-302020