Should you buy a comprehensive or a disease-specific policy?

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During these trying times when there have been unprecedented health concerns with high cost of treatment, the need for a health insurance policy cannot be stressed enough. But with a plethora of choices available in the market, people mostly get confused and end up buying the wrong policy. In such a scenario, what type of policy should one buy? Should one go for comprehensive coverage or a disease-specific plan?

Comprehensive health insurance policy

A basic unclaimed policy reimburses the cost of hospitalisation incurred during the treatment to a policyholder. For example, if a policyholder chooses a sum insured amount of Rs 10 lakh and the hospital bill comes to around Rs 6 lakh, the insurance company will pay out Rs 6 lakh to the policyholder. Unlike disease-specific plans, the indemnity policy provides coverage against the vast majority of diseases and not just one particular disease.

Disease-specific plans

Unlike basic policies which pay your hospital bills, disease-specific plans mostly benefit policies, which give a lump sum benefit on the diagnosis of a disease. The lump-sum payment not only saves you from the hassles of submitting hospital bills but also provides you funds at the beginning to take care of the patient. Some of the popular disease-specific covers include diabetes, cancer and dengue covers.

Last year two disease-specific policies – Covid Rakshak and Covid Kavach- were launched specifically after the debilitating impact of the Covid-19 was felt across segments. Covid Rakshak policy pays a lump sum benefit on the positive diagnosis of the policyholder. Corona Kavach policy covers hospitalisation expenses for the treatment of Covid-19. This indemnity policy does not have any room rent limit and covers home treatment and PPE cost.

What to do?

Currently, when the pandemic is still raging and there is no end in sight for the common man, should one buy a comprehensive health insurance policy or covid-specific policies? According to experts, one should have a basic health insurance policy as the first layer of protection and then get the second level of coverage through disease-specific plans. Covid specific covers are much cheaper and additional expenses relating to Covid 19 also get covered under these policies compared with basic health insurance policy. Having said that, each policy has its own advantage and, therefore, they cannot substitute for one another.