Choosing health cover plan for you and your family

The second wave of Covid-19 has reiterated the need for a health insurance policy so that we are not financially hit hard. With new policies coming into the market, it is important to buy a policy that gives you and your family all-round protection.

Today, you have different health insurance options to choose from, which can cover Covid-19 treatment- a regular comprehensive health insurance plan, Covid Kavach, Covid Rakshak plan, etc.

In such a situation, how will you decide on a better health cover plan for you and your family?

The Money9 Helpline hosted SK Sethi, CEO, Insurance Foundation of India, to help you understand the important factors while choosing a policy.

Here are few queries:

Narendra Sharma, Surat: I have a family floater national insurance plan. It has a cover of Rs 5 lakh cover. Should I increase my cover or buy a rider plan.

Sethi: If you have a Rs 5 lakh sum assured, I would suggest you buy a top-up policy plan. You can buy a top-up plan for Rs 20 lakh sum assured. There are a lot of top-up policy plans available in the market. You will have to pay less premium for top-up plans than regular policy premiums. So if you can afford you should definitely consider buying top-up plans. The second option is to buy a Covid Kavach policy. That also you can consider.

Neelesh Vathwar, Ahemdabad: I have an ICICI Lombard health insurance policy, my friend has bought a Corona Kavach policy and it has a very less premium. Should I also consider buying this policy?

Sethi: You have to first analyse how much coverage is provided by the ICICI Lombard policy. After evaluating that, you can consider buying a Corona Kavach policy. Since its premium is less, it will not create a financial strain.

Anany S Sengupta, Kolkata: We are a family of 5 members with three senior citizens. All of us have health insurance policies, but only my husband and I have corona specific policies. Should we purchase corona-specific policies for everyone in the family?

Sethi:  I am assuming you are talking about Corona kavach policy. The policy has an age cap from 18 years to 65 years. So if your parents are less than 65  years of age and childeren are above 18 years, then you can buy that policy.