Ten days quarantine could net a month's salary
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A Chinese insurance firm has won permission to insure people against catching Sars, a potentially lucrative market given China's huge population.
Taikang Life Insurance Co's decision to sell Sars insurance has been approved by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), the French news agency Agence France Presse reported.
China's health authorities are struggling to control the Sars outbreak, but the pace of new cases and deaths has yet to slacken.
Sars has claimed 214 lives in China and infected 4,409 people there, sparking widespread public panic.
Lucrative business
Taikang Life is planning to sell a year's insurance cover for 100 yuan ($12; £7.4), an easily affordable sum for most urban Chinese.
Policy holders who fall ill with Sars will receive a 100 yuan payout for every day spent in hospital, according to a report in the Beijing Morning Post cited by the French news service.
If they die, their family will be able to claim 50,000 yuan.
The average city dweller earns about 14,000 yuan a year.
The new policies will not be on sale to people aged over 70.
Taikang Life was created in 1996, one of five domestic commercial insurers granted a licence after new laws forced firms to split their property and life insurance businesses.
Taikang has since pursued an innovative strategy and taken advantage of changing rules on investment.
In 1999, it became only the second insurer in China to sell a stake to foreign investors, raising about $24m, according to Deloitte & Touche.
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