Long cooling period for Covid patients seeking health and life insurance cover – Times of India

Hyderabad: For Madhav Kumar, a product manager, all ailments were covered under a group insurance extended by his company.
But Kumar, who quit his job recently, got infected with Covid-19 during the third wave, was taken aback after he was told that he would have to wait for almost three months before he could get an individual health insurance policy.
It is not just Kumar, but many other Covid-19 recovered patients who now must wait for 45 days to three months to get new health and life insurance policies respectively as insurers have extended the standard waiting period applicable to Covid-19 cases as well.
Until now, this waiting period was only applicable for other ailments.
Several Covid-19 affected people who knocked doors of insurance companies seeking a new policy are being left unsecured for a few months after recovery. “Almost two weeks post recovery during the third wave, I decided to get a new health insurance with better coverage. However, I was informed I will have to wait for another month as the cooling period for Covid-19 recovered patients is about 45 days,” said Mahendra K, an IT employee.
In many cases, insurers are accepting Covid-19 reports only from renowned diagnostic centres, making it even more difficult for the recovered people. “I had got myself tested at home with a local diagnostic centre service. When I applied for health insurance, I was asked to submit reports from a renowned diagnostic centre which was on their approved list of centres,” said Sandhya Rao, a home-maker.
Industry experts admit there is a delay in getting insurance due to the uncertainty over the after-effects of Omicron.
“Pre-Covid, the number of people who had any medical condition in the preceeding six months would have been small, but given the way Omicron cases have been, this number has automatically moved up,” said Sajja Praveen Chowdary, head, term life insurance at PolicyBazaar.com, an insurance aggregator.
In Covid times, the proposal for term insurance is getting into additional scrutiny.
“Due to this, additional medical tests are sought, which might get postponed for three months. It becomes difficult for insurance companies to accept the risk and issue a policy without assessing the risk properly,” said Chowdary.