The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has released a clarification stating that the existing health insurance policy will also cover the cost of any hospitalisation occurring due to the after-effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"It is clarified that in the unlikely event of hospitalisation following an adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccination, hospitalisation is covered under the health insurance policies subject to the specific terms and conditions of the policy," it said in a statement.
For quite some time, customers have been approaching their respective health insurers seeking clarity if their existing health insurance policy will cover hospitalisation due to the COVID-19 vaccine’s adverse reactions.
To clear these doubts, the insurance regulator came out with this statement.
According to Amit Chhabra, head- health insurance, Policybazaar, this a very customer-centric move and will even encourage more and more people to take vaccine shots before worrying about the after-effects which are hardly any.
Earlier, Rakesh Goyal, director at Probus Insurance – an insurtech broking company, while speaking to CNBC-TV18 , clarified that there would be no impact on the insurance coverage on getting the COVID vaccines.
Naval Goel, founder and CEO at PolicyX.com also said if a person has taken a health policy before getting vaccinated, then he/she will be entitled to avail the claim in case he/she catches the virus post the vaccination.
Meanwhile, IRDAI recently also modified guidelines on product filing in the health insurance business. Going forward, the regulator has disallowed the practice of making major changes in the existing health insurance policies.
This means, the insurers now will not be allowed to make minor changes or modifications to the existing health policies. The modifications in offered products and services will only be made available to the customers as an add-on and will be optional for the customers to buy.
