Hyderabad: Health insurance companies in India today started selling two types of standard Covid-19 health policies across the country with common guidelines, as mandated by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI). The two products -- ‘Corona Kavach’ and ‘Corona Rakshak’ – will have standard features, terms and conditions, irrespective of the insurer you buy them from. But premiums will be decided by the companies.
While Corona Kavach is a standard indemnity-based policy, Corona Rakshak is a benefit-based plan. It is important for individuals to know the difference between the two products in order to understand which one to buy. Here’s a detailed guide explaining the same:
1) Type of coverage
As mentioned before, Corona Kavach is an indemnity plan. It means this kind of policy reimburses hospitalisation expenses actually incurred by the policyholder after testing positive for Covid-19, to the extent of the sum insured.
Corona Rakshak, meanwhile, is a standard benefit-based policy, which hand out a pre-agreed lump-sum amount upon diagnosis of a disease that has been insured. So, Corona Rakshak will pay out 100% of the sum insured as lump-sum amount irrespective of the actual expenses arising out of hospitalization for Covid-19 treatment.
2) Hospitalization
Corona Kavach will cover home-care treatment expenses of up to 14 days, if it involves an active line of Covid-19 treatment, and is done on a doctor’s advice, among other conditions.
Whereas, Corona Rakshak will pay the lump-sum amount only if the policyholder has been hospitalised for at least for 72 hours after testing positive for Covid-19. In case, policyholders have opted for home-care treatment, no claims can be made.
3) Sum insured
The minimum sum insured for the Corona Kavach policy is Rs 50,000 and the maximum sum insured is Rs 5 lakh.
In Corona Rakshak, the minimum sum insured is Rs 50,000, but the maximum is restricted at Rs 2.5 lakh.
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4) Tenure
Corona Kavach will offer a policy tenure of 3.5 months, 6.5 months or 9.5 months, including the 15-day waiting period.
Meanwhile, the sums insured under the Corona Rakshak policy will carry tenures of 105 days, 195 days and 285 days, including the 15-day waiting period. The policy will cease to exist once the claim is paid out.
5) Family floater option
The Corona Kavach policy comes with a family-floater option. Family includes legally wedded spouse, parents, parents-in-law and dependent children up to 25 years of age.
On the other hand, Corona Rakshak policy is an individual plan with no family floater option.
6) Availability
IRDAI made it mandatory for all general and health insurers to sell the reimbursement-based Corona Kavach product, while offering the benefit-based Corona Rakshak plan has been kept optional.
So individuals who want to buy Corona Kavach would be able to choose any insurer, but options might be limited in case of Corona Rakshak.
7) Discount
There is a mandatory 5% discount on premiums on Corona Kavach policies for health care workers only. However, no such discount is reportedly being offered on Corona Rakshak policies.
(ETV Bharat Report)
