Given the uncertain times amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, it is prudent to have a health insurance cover for you and your family. A regular indemnity hospitalisation plan is a must have, as one can’t be sure about the kind of illness one is vulnerable to.

While in a specialised Covid-19 cover, exclusions will be less and coverage will be more comprehensive, a regular hospitalisation will still cover a good portion of your expenses on treatment for Covid-19. Max Bupa recently launched the ReAssure, a hospitalisation plan with a few new features. Here’s a review of the plan:

What’s on offer?

It is an indemnity health insurance cover offering sum insured (SI) of minimum ₹3 lakh and maximum ₹1 crore. The policy allows unlimited re-instatement of SI to ensure that the insured doesn’t run out of SI any time. The policy offers a no-claim bonus of 50 per cent of SI. It covers cost of health check-ups up to ₹500 for every ₹1 lakh of SI (for all listed tests). If you download Max Bupa’s Health app on your mobile, you can collect health points for the number of footsteps you take in a day and get discount of up to 30 per cent on the renewal premium. The other benefits in the plan which are not very common in the industry are — cover for air ambulance up to SI, and cover for robotic surgeries with cap of ₹1 lakh. The policy also offers a few riders that are worth considering — i) claim safeguard, where non-payable items under insurance also get cover up to the amount of the SI; ii) booster benefit safeguard, where you do not lose the no-claim bonus (NCB) if claim in a policy year is up to ₹50,000, and iii) SI safeguard where there is a CPI-linked increase in base SI and it offers 100 per cent coverage on all consumables on cashless basis.

Our take

Max Bupa’s ReAssure is a more comprehensive health plan compared to the Health Companion — the insurer’s old product that is quite popular in the market. While in the latter there is a cap on room rent for suite and classes above, in ReAssure room rent for all classes of rooms is covered up to the SI. Also, while pre-/post-hospitalisation is covered for only 30 days and 60 days in Health Companion, in ReAssure, it is covered for 60 days and 180 days respectively. Also, NCB benefit is higher (SI doubles in two no-claim years) in ReAssure and it covers home care treatment.

That said, the highlight in the new plan is the ReAssure benefit — restoration in SI. Unlike most other indemnity hospitalisation plans in the market including Health Companion where SI re-instatement is done only once a year, in Max Bupa’s ReAssure plan, the benefit is available multiple times.

Also, the restored SI can be used for the same illness, if it recurs. The only catch in Re Assure with respect to the restoration feature is that any single claim under the benefit can’t exceed the base SI. Of advantage in the ReAssure policy is also that it covers all medical expenses incurred during Day Care Treatment requiring more than two hours of hospitalisation, including angiography, dialysis and radiotherapy. It also covers in-patient treatment under AYUSH that allows you to opt for Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy treatments.

If you are wondering whether ReAssure will cover Covid-19-related expenses, yes, it will. The policy has reduced the initial the waiting period (30 days) to 15 days for Covid-19-related claims. It has also said the booster benefit will not be disturbed if claim is made for Covid-19-related treatment. Note also that the policy has no cap on expenses on room rent charges, medical practitioners’ fees, investigative tests, and medicines on hospitalisation. Also, it offers 100 per cent coverage for personal protective equipment (PPE) kit, gloves and oxygen masks. However, note that for 100 per cent cashless benefit on medical expenses, including PPE kits, one needs to buy the ‘safeguard’ rider. A condition in the policy you should also note is that any pre-existing disease will be covered under the policy only after three years. If you have any health issues and are looking for policies with shorter waiting periods, there are options in the market. Digit General Insurance’s Maxima Restore Super plan and ICICI Lombard’s Complete Health Insurance plan have two-year waiting periods on pre-existing diseases.

ReAssure, is a comprehensive plan, and a good product to have. Royal Sundaram’s Lifeline Supreme is also an option but there are some limitations — NCB is 20 per cent of SI and rises up to a maximum of 100 per cent; re-load of SI up to 100 per cent of base SI but only for different illness; waiting period 36 months.

The premium for ReAssure Family floater policy (2A+2C) of ₹5 lakh sum insured with eldest member’s age being 40 years is ₹21,297, which is not expensive given its varied features. The addition of ‘safeguard’ rider will increase the premium by about ₹2,000.

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