The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has issued the final guidelines containing the standard features of the Covid-19 specific health insurance plan Corona Kavach and has allowed 29 General and Health Insurance companies to market the Policy.
“In view of the Covid 19 pandemic, the Authority has designed a standard Covid specific product addressing basic health insurance needs of insuring public with common policy wordings across the industry. The Authority has mandated general and health insurers to offer this indemnity based Individual Covid Standard Health Policy called Corona Kavach,” the IRDAI said in its release.
The Corona Kavach plan shall be available on Individual and Family Floater Basis with the Base Cover on Indemnity Basis-Covid Hospitalisation cover and Optional Cover on Benefit Basis-Hospital Daily Cash.
The Sum Insured (SI) of the single premium plan will be in the multiples of Rs 50,000 with minimum SI of Rs 50,000 and maximum SI of Rs 5 Lakh.
The policy term will be Three and Half Months (3 ½ months), Six and Half Months(6 ½ months) and Nine and Half Months (9 ½ months) including waiting period of 15 days.
Apart from the hospitalisation expenses on diagnosis of Covid-19 and pre-hospitalisation expense for 15 days and post-hospitalisation expenses for 30 days, the policy will also cover Home care treatment for up to 14 days per incident, Ambulance Charges of Rs 2,000 per hospitalisation and will have Optional Cover of Hospital Daily Cash at a rate of 0.5 per cent of Sum Insured per day subject to maximum of 15 days in a policy period for every insured member.
For the purpose of this policy any set-up designated by the government as hospital for the treatment of Covid shall also be also considered as hospital and any co-morbid condition triggered due to Covid-19 shall be covered during the period of hospitalisation.
The 29 companies that are authorised to issue the Corona Kavach plan are Acko General Insurance, Aditya Birla Health Insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Bharti AXA General Insurance, Cholamandalam MS General Insurance, Edelweiss General Insurance, Future Generali India Insurance, Go Digit General Insurance, HDFC ERGO General Insurance, HDFC ERGO Health, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, IFFCO TOKIO General Insurance, Kotak Mahindra General Insurance, Liberty General Insurance, Magma HDI General Insurance, ManipalCigna Health Insurance, Max Bupa Health Insurance, Navi General Insurance, National Insurance, Raheja QBE General Insurance, Reliance General Insurance, Religare Health Insurance, Royal Sundaram General Insurance, SBI General Insurance, Star Health & Allied Insurance, Tata AIG General Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance and Universal Sompo General Insurance.
Talking on the plan, Prasun Sikdar, Managing Director and CEO, ManipalCigna Health Insurance Company Limited said, “According to the findings of our latest 360° Well-Being survey, 82 per cent of India’s population suffers from high stress levels and the top stress triggers are finance, work and personal health concerns. Since the outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19), we have further seen this intensify as majority of people today are feeling anxious about their health and longer-term financial security. Moreover, in the backdrop of surging new positive cases, people worry about losing their job or income and how they could cover potentially devastating health care bills if they are infected with coronavirus.”
“Thus we are grateful to the regulator to bring a Covid Standard Health Policy in the interests of the citizens during these challenging times. This policy can provide millions of people access to quality healthcare and help take away some of the financial burden so they can focus on their recovery with greater peace of mind,” he added.
“The growing incidences of Covid-19 cases in the country have made people prioritise their health. The Health Insurance awareness is at an all-time high and possibly the highest we have seen in the last decade. This is the ideal time to channelise the awareness to bring more people under the ambit of health insurance. The Corona Kavach plan brings value to customers who want cover for Covid-19 related treatment costs,” said Krishnan Ramachandran, MD & CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance.
