The Coronavirus has left a mark on each of us, and whoever has lived through this tumultuous time will never forget the harrowing issues we have faced due to the virus. Whether directly or indirectly, it has impacted each of us and changed how we live, work, manage our finances and view life. However, it has done one positive thing: it has forced most of us to look inward and introspect on what we spend on. Fearing the worst, and frightened of coming up short in the face of developing the virus, people started investing in health insurance plans to offset the financial damage due to COVID.
But simply buying a health insurance plan in India is not enough. It must offer adequate coverage when needed, pay up as promised, and meet all contingencies without springing any surprises. If you are mulling over ways to get a better, more well-rounded policy, this article is for you.
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Consider the ways to increase your health insurance coverage
If you find that your current health insurance policy is not paying adequately for your needs, especially in terms of COVID expenses, here’s what you can do:
* Port to a new health insurance provider.
COVID treatment must be extended to each family member equally. While treating one, another family member should not be deprived of treatment owing to paucity of funds or the exhausted deductible on the COVID plan. If your existing plan does not cover all eventualities and the provider is unable or unwilling to extend equal coverage or increased coverage, you can port to a service provider that will provide the same. You may also consider buying additional coverage or with the existing insurer or with the new one you port to.
* Get a super top up policy.
COVID is a highly infectious illness. If one family member has it, then the chances are high of other family members also contracting it. This means that there will be multiple COVID patients in the same family. Now, when you try to use your family health insurance sum assured for the treatment, it might get exhausted in treating one or two members, leaving nothing for the others. Also, COVID treatment is not restricted merely to taking medicines and getting treated in a hospital, but also the purchase of PPE kits, gloves, sanitising equipment, special sheets, etc. The chances of the sum assured on your base health insurance plan being exhausted completely are quite high. At this juncture, a super top up policy can work wonders. It pays over and above the deductible on your primary health plan and accounts for multiple hospitalizations.
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* Choose Arogya Sanjeevani coverage.
One way to surmount the problem of exhausting the sum assured on your family health plan is to buy individual health covers for each family member. Though this assures each member of having a substantial amount for their personal treatment, it results in multiple premiums that may cumulatively be quite expensive. You might not wish to pay a high amount of money on premiums, but may wish to get at least basic coverage for each person. Consider investing in a standard product like Arogya Sanjeevani, which is a universal health insurance plan in India promoted by every insurance provider. All the conditions in the policy are the same, whether you buy from one provider or another, and available at a lower price. Additionally, you can add Arogya Sanjeevani coverage to your existing policy considering the gamut of its various sub-limits or co-payment clauses.
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* Get Corona-specific health insurance.
On the other hand, you might only want a short-term coverage for Coronavirus. You can consider buying COVID-specific policies such as the Corona Kavach or Corona Rakshak plans. These policies are designed to provide individual or family coverage to pay for Coronavirus hospitalization and treatment. Even pre-hospitalization costs, home care and AYUSH treatment are covered for those testing positive and who cannot undergo hospitalization for lack of hospital beds. While Corona Kavach pays the actual cost of 24-hours or more hospitalization on an indemnity basis, Corona Rakshak pays the sum assured irrespective of the actual hospitalization cost if the insured person has undergone 72 hours of hospitalization.
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