Best Health Insurance Plans for Diabetic Patients in India
Newton’s third law of physics says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. How true is this when it comes to all aspects of our life. Our super-fast lifestyle, 24*7 connectivity and hectic work schedules have degraded our quality of life. As a result, the health barometer has dipped considerably in the country and lifestyle diseases have grown exponentially. According to National Health Portal, more than 60 million adults have diabetes. In almost 50% of the cases, it is not diagnosed and remains untreated.
Considering the challenges associated with timely diagnosis and management of diabetes, it is important for us to ensure that we take all necessary precautionary steps to fight this deadly disease. While a healthy lifestyle is a pre-requisite, many individuals are predisposed to diabetes due to hereditary or genetic conditions.
A good health insurance plan hence becomes the next step in effective diabetes management. However, a regular policy is not sufficient to meet the expenses and frequent medication associated with diabetes. One needs a specialized policy which caters exclusively to the medical needs of this disease.
Health Insurance Plans for Diabetics in India
There are various easily identifiable symptoms of Diabetics in India including excessive thirst, urinating frequently, sudden loss of weight and blurry sight. While talking about long term effects, the human body takes even longer time to heal and becomes vulnerable to kidney damage, nervous system and eyes. A diabetic patient finds it hard to discover an economical health insurance policy offering coverage for diabetes-associated healthcare expenses.
At present, the health insurance plans that include diabetes and other associated problems, does not offer the coverage before a waiting period of 4 years after the diagnosis of the disease. Even if there are some insurance plans that offer diabetes cover before 4 years then they have a very high premium cost associated. While, commonly in most of the health insurance policies, diabetes and hypertension are excluded from the policy coverage and are not included even after 1, 2 or 4 years.
The ideal approach for a diabetic patient in such a situation would be to purchase a health insurance policy with diabetes cover and go through the entire waiting period. While looking for health insurance plans, an individual should consider buying a plan that covers diabetes and related ailments in a shorter waiting period in comparison to the usual waiting period. Also, you get yourself insured under a group health insurance that is offered by your employer. These insurance plans offer coverage to you against pre-existing conditions including diabetes but the coverage is only till the time you are an employee with the organization.
Many insurance providers have come out with dedicated diabetes insurance plans. Here is a list of the top three health insurance policies for diabetics in our country:
1. Apollo Munich Energy Plan
The Energy Plan is a comprehensive health management program for individuals diagnosed with Diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2 mellitus), pre-diabetes (Impaired Fasting Glucose, Impaired Glucose Tolerance) or hypertension. The core objective of this health insurance policy is not only to finance the medical expenses of these individuals but also to support them in leading an active lifestyle.
The key inclusions of this plan are:
- Sum Insured options range between 2 Lakhs and 50 Lakhs
- There is no waiting period involved. The policy holders receive coverage from the first day itself for all hospitalization related expenses for the eligible diseases
- It provides for health-checkups at regular intervals
- Increase in the basic sum insured as a reward for no-claim years
- Restore benefit in claim years. For instance, if one has a cover of 15 lakhs and makes a claim of 3 lakhs, then in the subsequent year one will have 15+12 = 27 lakhs at the cost of a 15-lakh cover
- Personalized wellness program wherein a health coach assists in creating exercise and diet plans
- Digital portal which contains plethora of information on healthy living and cultivating a better lifestyle. It also offers functionalities such as appointments tracker and reminder, medicine alert and digital locker for medical reports and easy retrieval on demand
- Policyholders are rewarded with wellness incentives for following a healthy/active lifestyle. These points or rewards can be used for the payment of diagnostic, consultation, medicine or other such health-related expenses
Age Eligibility
· One should be at least 18 years old and not more than 65 years at the time of entry into the policy
2. Star Health Diabetes Safe Plan
With a network of more than 9300 hospitals across the country, hassle free in-house claim settlement and quick turnaround time (90% cashless claims settled within two hours), Star Health insurance policies are a great catch for everyone.
The Diabetes Safe Policy by Star Health insurance company is a specialized and unique healthcare policy for diabetic individuals. It provides coverage against complications due to Diabetes (Type I and Type II) in addition to regular hospitalization, outpatient care and personal accident cover.
The salient feautures of this plan are:
- Sum Insured starts from 3 Lakhs and can go up to 10 Lakhs
- Policy is available on an individual as well as family floater basis
- Zero waiting period for complications arising out of diabetes. For other diseases the waiting period is:
o 30 days for accidental hospitalization or non diabetes treatment
o 2 years for specified diseases
o 4 years for pre-existing ailments
- Covers all hospitalization related expenses for treatment of diabetes. This includes room rents, doctor’s fees, diagnostic expenses and cost of medicines
- Pre and post hospitalization expenses covered for 30 days and 60 days respectively
- Includes emergency charges such as ambulance transportation to the hospital
- Covers donor expenses in a kidney transplant surgery
- Pays for dialysis expenses payable up to a period of two years
- In case of an amputation, cost of artificial limbs (till 10% of sum insured) is admissible
- Policy includes all day-care procedures such as cataract treatment, etc.
- Diagnostic tests, medical consultation fees, cost of medicines permitted till a specified limit
- Automatic restoration of the basic sum insured
- Compensation in the unfortunate event of accidental death of the insured up to 100% of the sum insured amount
Age Eligibility
· Individuals who are diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus and are in the age bracket of 18 to 65 years are eligible to take this policy
3. Aditya Birla Activ Health Enhanced Plan
The Activ Health Enhanced plan by Aditya Birla is one step in the journey towards healthier living and well-being. It is a unique offering and has a wide range of benefits such as chronic management program for lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and asthma, rewards for leading a healthy and fit lifestyle, etc.
The key benefits of this plan are:
- Provides for hospitalization expenses for planned treatments as well as unforeseen emergencies. Pre and post hospitalization expenses covered for a period of 60 days and 180 days respectively
- Covers Day care procedures and domiciliary hospitalization (wherein hospital transfer is not possible due to health reasons or unavailability of beds at the medical facility)
- Ambulance transfer facility
- In the event of an organ transplant, covers the medical expenses of the insured and the organ donor
- Complimentary annual health check-up for each adult insured. The tests are customized basis the life stage of the person
- Comprehensive Chronic Management Program – This special program is curated by medical experts to control the conditions associated with diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure or cholesterol, etc. It includes regular consultation with doctors, diagnostic tests as well as pharmacy benefits
- Health Returns - The program rewards the policy holders for staying fit and making healthy life choices. These rewards can be used for paying premium, purchasing medicines, etc.
- A wellness coach is assigned to each policy holder who assists on creating a health plan and guides on the journey towards well-being
- Cumulative bonus (up to 20% of sum insured) for claims free years. Even in case of claims in subsequent years, there is no claw-back of this bonus
- Facility of auto-reload of sum insured in case of insufficiency
- Cash benefit (per day allowance) for each day of stay in the hospital
- In case of longer period of stay in hospitals, a lump-sum amount (recovery benefit) is provided to take care of incidental expenses such as attendant charges, travel costs, etc.
Age Eligibility
· The minimum enrollment age is 91 days and there is no upper limit on the entry age
Final Words:
Do not let this silent killer take the sweetness out of your and loved ones’ lives. Protect your family with any of these plans as per your requirements. Not only will you lead a healthier life but also a wealthier one as you would not be shelling out your hard-earned money for medical bills. Above all, the premium paid towards these insurance plans also give you tax benefits as per Section 80D of the Income Tax Act.
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