Lockdown: Demand for health insurance plans surges in Ludhiana

Many insurance firms in the city have reported 25 to 30 per cent rise in sale of health policies since the lockdown

For 42-year-old Ashwani Kumar, a cashier of a private firm based in Feroze Gandhi market, health insurance plans seemed like a waste till about two months ago. He believed that one should rely on one’s personal savings for emergencies. But all that changed since Covid-19 outbreak.

An insurer said while earlier the insurance company had to approach the individuals with the plan benefits, people’s take on health insurance has changed dramatically since the lockdown (HT File)

Anxious after hearing about cases where the whole families got infected, Kumar rushed to purchase a family insurance plan to cover his wife and 12-year-old son.

Kumar is among the many for whom the outbreak served as a wake up call. They are soon realising that along with storing sufficient grocery items at home, it is also important to purchase a health insurance plan.

In Ludhiana, many insurance companies have reported 25 to 30 per cent rise in sale of health policies since the lockdown.

Arjun Kumar, health planner Punjab, Religare Health Insurance, said that while earlier the insurance company had to approach individuals for plan benefits, now the reverse is happening.

“We have seen a 30% increase in the number of clients since the lockdown. With the rising positive cases, people are concerned how they would bear the medicine expenses in case someone in their family gets infected with the virus,” told Kumar.

Kumar said primary query regarding any health plan that they receive these days is whether the insurance plan covers coronavirus or not.

“Earlier people used to enquire aspects of the insurance cover, including accident cover, however, all the other things have become less important. People just want to get a health cover for their loved ones against coronavirus,” he said.

Unlike earlier, when a health checkup would be carried out before sanctioning the insurance plan, the insurance firms are providing the cover within few hours of basic verification and digital payment of the premium.

“We ask the client to send all the details through email and after verifying their particulars , we give them a go ahead for payment. They get the plan only after a few hours of clearing all required formalities. Other than the new clients, we are also working on settling the claims of our clients undergoing treatment for coronavirus in different cities on priority basis,” he informed.

Recently, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) had asked the insurers to decide on authorisation for cashless treatment to the network provider (hospital) within two hours from the time of receipt of authorisation request and last necessary requirement from the hospital. The move is aimed to ensure that health insurance claims of all coronavirus patients are dealt with swiftly.

Individuals opting family health cover plans

Jiwan Sharma, sales manager of Star Health Insurance, informed that a majority of their new clients are opting for family health insurance plan. “Since the coronavirus spreads with the contact and the whole family is potentially at risk if one person gets infected, people are largely opting for family health cover plans. Presently, the ratio of the demand for family plan against individual plan is 7:3. Moreover, the premium of family health insurance is comparatively less than the individual plan,” he informed.