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: Shreeraj Deshpande, head, travel insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, spoke with Abhay Rao of the Financial Express about travel insurance nuances, its ins and outs and what should policy takers do to choose a good policy. Excerpts:
•What does travel insurance in India cover?
Travel insurance is essentially divided into two broad categorises. One is domestic and one is overseas travel. Domestic travel insurance is not very popular and rarely used, while overseas travel insurance is taken more often. Our products would include. Travel Assist, Travel Asia, Travel Elite, Travel Companion and Swades Yatra. These plans can cover medical coverage ranging from $50,000-200,000. The plans offer both medical and non-medical coverage to policy takers. Medical insurance covers, medical expenses, repatriations costs, which one may incur in case of death occurring while abroad, hospitalisation costs, etc. Medical illness is by far the main area of concern for people and a majority of the coverage goes in that area, due to the high medical expenses abroad. Most people who travel, be it for pleasure or business, will rarely carry enough forex, to cover medical treatment, and hence an insurance cover is your best bet. Some countries like the US especially will not even treat a patient unless they have an insurance cover. Other places, especially in Europe, do not even give a person a visa, unless they have a travel insurance that covers medical problems. Non-medical problems, dealing with loss of passport, loss of baggage, third party liability, which takes care of legal issues and costs incurred due to accidents causing injury to someone else, are the main areas where these products become useful.
•Which avenues account for a majority of the claims that come in here?
The maximum amount of claims are seen coming in from US and Canada visits, followed by Europe and China. Medical claims form a bulk of the travel insurance claims we see, with non-medical claims only accounting for 5% of the claims, which too are usually restricted to loss or delay of baggage.
•What common mistakes occur while going in for travel insurance?
One of the most common mistakes and misconceptions that people have when dealing with travel insurance comes from the “pre existing illness” clause, which most people ignore or fail to understand. Most people, after purchasing the policy and going on their trip, end up asking us as to why are pre-existing illness’s...
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