ICICI Lombard Activate Booster Review 2026

01The detail

Activate Booster in one table

Claim settlement ratio

87.6%FY 2024–25

95% recommended

Complaints per 10,000

16.6policies

Under 10 recommended

Insurer	ICICI LOMBARD General Insurance Company Limited
Sum insured	₹10 lakh upwards, payable above the deductible you choose.
Entry age	6 years and above. The prospectus states a maximum entry age of 125, which is its way of saying there is no practical upper limit.

Claim settlement and complaint figures are IRDAI-published and held centrally by NYVO, not taken from the insurer's marketing.

02Cover

What Activate Booster covers

These are the terms that decide what you are actually paid when you claim. Room rent, co-pay and restoration do more to shape a settlement than the sum insured does, and they are read from ICICI Lombard's own policy wording.

Feature	This plan	What good looks like
What kind of plan this is	A top-up. It pays only above the deductible you choose, so every claim below that figure is yours. It is designed to sit on top of a base policy or an employer's cover.	Read this first – it is not a standalone policy
Deductible options	₹3 lakh to ₹20 lakh, chosen at purchase	Match it to the cover you already hold
Waiver of deductible	An option to drop the deductible and move to a full indemnity policy for the same sum insured, without re-evaluation of health status, subject to the conditions in the wording.	Genuinely rare on a top-up
Sum insured	₹10 lakh minimum, with no stated maximum, payable above the deductible	Sized for a serious admission
Room rent	Single private room as standard, with options to modify the entitlement upward or to a 1% of sum insured cap	Confirm which option you bought

What this plan does

03Waiting periods

Activate Booster waiting periods: when each part of the cover starts

Waiting periods run from the day cover began, not from the day you fall ill, and they run in parallel rather than one after another.

Initial waiting period	30 days from the first policy commencement date, except claims arising from an accident
Pre-existing disease	36 months of continuous cover
Specified diseases and procedures	24 months of continuous cover, reducible for additional premium

04Exclusions

Activate Booster exclusions: what the plan will not pay for

Every policy carries exclusions, and they are the clauses people read for the first time at claim stage. These are the ones worth knowing before you buy.

Not coveredIndicative, not exhaustive. Your policy wording is the contract.

01Pre-existing diseases and their direct complications, until the waiting period above has passed.

02The listed specified diseases and procedures, for the period set out in the wording.

03Where the sum insured is increased, the waiting periods start again on the increase only.

05The honest bit

Where Activate Booster falls short

No plan is right for everyone, and a page that only lists strengths is not much use to you. These are the gaps we would raise on a call before recommending it.

Worth knowing before you buyNone of these are dealbreakers on their own. They are the trade-offs this plan asks you to accept.

01It is not a standalone policy. A top-up pays only above the deductible, so if your base cover lapses or a claim falls below the deductible, nothing is paid. Buying one without an underlying policy is the most common mistake with this product.

02Pre-existing conditions wait 36 months, the longest IRDAI now permits, which is a long time on a product bought for a large future claim.

03The deductible resets every policy year, so an illness spanning two policy years crosses it twice.

04ICICI Lombard settles 87.6% of claims. On a product you may hold for years without claiming, that record matters more than the premium.

05The waiver of deductible is the reason to choose this plan, and it is conditional. Read those conditions before you buy for that feature.

06FAQs

Activate Booster questions, answered

Do I need an existing policy to buy this?

In practice, yes. It only pays above the deductible you choose, which starts at ₹3 lakh, so every claim below that figure is entirely yours. It is designed to sit on top of a retail policy or an employer's cover.

What is the waiver of deductible?

An option to convert the top-up into a full indemnity policy for the same sum insured, without your health being re-assessed. That matters because health reassessment is exactly what stops people upgrading cover later in life. The conditions are in the wording and should be read before you buy for this feature.

What is the waiting period for pre-existing conditions?

36 months of continuous cover, which is the longest IRDAI permits. Specified diseases and procedures wait 24 months, and that can be reduced for additional premium.

What deductible should I choose?

Match it to the cover you already hold. If your base policy is ₹5 lakh, a ₹5 lakh deductible means the top-up starts roughly where the base runs out. A deductible far above your base cover leaves a gap you pay yourself.

07Source documents