What Has the Covid-19 Pandemic Taught Us About Health Insurance?
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted one important thing: the need to stay protected against the worst of uncertainties. You never know which person is infected and whether you can protect yourself completely against contracting the infection even after taking all precautions like wearing masks. Outdoor activities cannot altogether come to a standstill. Due to this, there’s a constant fear of getting infected.
As life expectancy in India continues to go up, people are increasingly being exposed to health problems or risks, including COVID-19 for a longer period. Therefore, it’s high time to opt for comprehensive lifetime health insurance that covers a variety of your medical expenses and offers a range of benefits. Along with that, you need a COVID-19 health insurance plan, keeping in mind the current situation.
As of January 27, 2022, around 2,51,209 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in India. There have already been over 4.06 crore total cases and over 4.92 lakh total deaths in the country. The numbers are alarming. Rising cases have already swamped Indian medical insurers with health claims. Therefore, COVID-19 has been added to the list of major illnesses under health insurance claims in India. This is good news since now you too can claim insurance coverage if you incur medical costs on being infected by the coronavirus.
Here is what the pandemic has taught us to keep inmindwhenchoosingahealthinsuranceplanforCOVID-19.
How to Choose aCOVID-19Health Insurance Plan?
Look for the following facilities and benefits when you choose a COVID-19 health insurance plan:
A large sum insured
A large sum insured, for instance, up to ₹5,00,000, should be available to cover not only an individual but also his/her family. This is important since family members like senior citizens are often more vulnerable to the infection, and, therefore, need health coverage against it.
Affordable
The health plan needs to be affordable for all Indians. This is also a much-needed feature since the pandemic caused an economic crisis and spiked up inflation.
Discounts for healthcare workers
The plan must come with discounts for healthcare workers as they’re the most prone to getting infected while dealing with multiple patients.
Hospitalisation cover
If you’re infected and show severe symptoms, you need to be hospitalised. Even if you have moderate symptoms, you may need medical care like oxygen therapy. So, the health insurance plan must offer a COVID hospitalisation cover up to the sum insured on your positive diagnosis of the disease. If you get the option to choose hospital daily cash, you can handle the hospitalisation expenses better, on a day-to-day basis.
Home care treatment cover
Sometimes, you can receive treatment at home if you’re tested positive with COVID-19. Therefore, see whether the health plan also covers the expenses towards home care treatment of this condition up to the sum insured.
Pre-hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation cover
The health insurance plan must also offer pre-hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation cover to take care of these related costs. These covers should be available for a standard period, for instance, 15 days before the date of hospital admission or home care treatment, and 30 days from the date of hospital discharge. The plan must also cover any associated ambulance charges to an extent.
AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) treatment
Clinical studies across India have generated scientific evidence that certain AYUSH remedies can support standard treatment to manage mild-to-moderate and asymptomatic cases. Therefore, it’s necessary that the health plan also covers any medical expenses under AYUSH treatment incurred in COVID-related hospitalisation.
Thankfully, you can get a comprehensive COVID-19 health insurance plan with all the above benefits from leading companies like ManipalCigna. So, opt for such a plan to secure your health against the ongoing pandemic.