Insurance top-up gets tougher for Covid recovered

Nagpur: Experiences during the pandemic may have increased demand for medical insurance but those recovered from Covid are finding it tough to enhance the cover now. The post-Covid health disorders are also hampering their insurability.
Insurance companies are discouraging enhancement of cover under existing insurance schemes for Covid recovered patients. Enhancement is an addition over and above the old policy. Although separate insurance policies can be taken, it is done only after a thorough scrutiny, said sources in the insurance advisory business. The fresh policies are triggered when the existing one is exhausted and cashless facility is generally not available.
In cases of severe Covid, some insurance companies are also denying applications for a separate insurance cover, said sources. There are some exceptions with liberal approach too.
It is a standard practice for insurance companies to delay an insurance for a year or six months after any major illness. This is also being applied in cases of severe Covid. However, Covid cases have their own complications.
Each of the post-Covid cases are also being thoroughly examined with special emphasis on the health conditions developed due to Covid. Patients have ended up with complications like high sugar levels, hypertension and even joint pain. These conditions are being taken as underlying diseases and excluded in the insurance policies. This means the diseases will not be covered for the first three to four years.
Manoj Aya of GNTL Financial Services said that the customers have to give a self-declaration that they did not have Covid. After that a thorough investigation begins. Not only the discharge summary but even the in-patient department report with day to day account of hospital stay is being studied. If a person was on ventilator or other oxygen support, there is a likelihood that insurance may be even denied.
In some cases certain diseases considered as a co-morbidity under the Covid protocol have become a reason for rejection. The grounds are that it can become a serious complication in case a person gets Covid.
“My parents’ application for an insurance cover was rejected as they had high sugar levels. In the normal course they could have got insured along with the exclusion clause. They were not infected with Covid at any time though” said Prasanna Dani, an insurance advisor himself.
Patients with joint pain post Covid are likely to get a policy with exclusion of knee replacement treatment cover, said a source.