In a major development, life insurers allow the Swine Flu-hit people to claim hospitalisation expenses under the healthcare insurance coverage.
The importance of health insurance becomes very apparent in situations like the current pandemic scenario. Unlike other countries, most health insurance policies in India cover hospitalisation expenses arising out of such epidemics, they said. Awareness and interest levels in insurance protection tend to shoot up after every major calamity. For example, after the Gujarat earthquake there was a spurt in demand for protection against loss due to earthquakes. Similarly, after the 26/11 terrorists attack the number of requests and calls for anti-terror policies reached an all-time peak.
However, there is a need for sustained awareness creation on the need for proactive health insurance by all concerned stakeholders so that adequate protection can be put in place for and received by all citizens, said Future Generali India Insurance Company COO Krishnamoorthy Rao.
According to him, hospitalisation expenses arising out of accidents and/or illness like Swine Flu are being covered by most of the insurers in the country. Health insurance policies, however, do not cover expenses incurred for testing diseases like Swine Flu, but the cover becomes applicable only once the person is tested positive and gets admitted to the hospital for treatment.
A senior official of the Tata AIG Life said, ??All our healthcare products will cover hospitalisation charges of diseases such as Swine Flu. Since disease like this is an occasional phenomenon there is not much awareness created among the common public. Though there is no such claim or enquiry being made so far, those who have been affected and have healthcare insurance coverage can claim hospitalisation charges.??
There is no need for creating a separate or dedicated policy for this kind of illness or disease. Even one has to create it will take time which will become stale, he added. Bharti Axa Life Insurance spokesperson said, ??Most of the insurers will cover the hospitalisation charges of pandemic disease like Swine Flu. The coverage may differ from one insurer to another. But a customer, who is affected with Swine Flu, can claim the hospitalisation charges.??
Since the percentage of people insured under health insurance policies is not high, the number of claims that have got reported to insurers till now is not significant. However, the company is receiving many calls from intermediaries or insured about coverage of Swine Flu under the health insurance policy, Rao added.