With nearly 1.6 crore Indians having tested positive for covid. The number of first time insurance buyers who are likely to face scrutiny is rising while it is usual for insurers to inquire about pre existing diseases before selling a health cover, covid has made insurers turn cautious as it’s long term impact in organ ia unknown.
While rising incidents and deaths are making it as a stronger and prominent case for people to buy health insurance before the infection strikes , insurers are of the opinion that only after the hospitalization that makes realise the need of the medical policy.
The quotes that health insurers provide for various ages are for “standard proposals” or those without pre existing condition and acceptance of the proposal depends on each company’s underwriting criteria. While the underwriting criteria is not made public, industry sources say that these range from requiring covid negative certificate to asking applicants to wait between two to six months before on boarding them . If the patient is hospitalised and suffered damage to lungs , they could face exclusions.
Considering the rapid spread of new variant of covid , it is hard to say anything about the long term effects of it . Most insurer are a bit iffy about on – boarding customers who have just recovered from covid, as a result insurer put a cooling off period of 3-6 months after covid detection.
About 80% of covid survivors , it should not be a problem because they have mild symptoms, and they are under home quarantine. For the acceptance will depend on how severe the infection has been , whether any organs were impacted, whether the person has been on the ventilation.
