You may have to pay extra for health insurance covering treatment abroad

The insured may need to pay extra premium for treatment in the US. There is also co-payment of up to 20%

Increasingly, general insurance companies are launching health plans that allow policyholders to get treatment abroad. Recently, the state-owned insurer New India Assurance launched a global a plan to cover treatment overseas.

Such policies are usually targeted towards high networth individuals. “While hospitals in India offer advanced treatments, some individuals are keen to go abroad for specialised treatments in case of certain illnesses,” says G Srinivasan, chairman and managing director, New India Assurance.

In the recent past, few others have also launched policies that cover hospitalisation in another country including Religare Health Insurance, Cigna TTK Health Insurance and Max Bupa. But each of these plans comes with its own inclusions, exclusions terms and conditions.

Explains Vaidyanathan Ramani, head of products and innovations at Policybazaar.com: Health insurance that covers treatment abroad can be broadly classified into three categories. Companies like Religare Health lets policyholders get treatment abroad for any illnesses just like it works in India. Then there are plans from New India Assurance that allow hospitalisation for specified diseases only. Insurers like Cigna TTK cover hospitalisation only if the insured is abroad and falls ill. It works more like a combination of health and travel insurance. “The premium also varies accordingly. Plans that cover all treatment have the highest premiums whereas the ones that covers only emergency hospitalisation are cheaper,” says Ramani.

Getting treatment abroad can be costly. These plans, therefore, comes with a cover. New India Assurance offers a covers of $500,000 and $1 million. Religare Health offers a cover of up to Rs 60 million. Others also have a cover of up to Rs 10 million.

Many of these insurers either don’t cover the US for treatment or the policyholder has to be additional premium if they want to include the US as an option. There is also co-payment of up to 20 per cent in some policies. They also cover an insured for a limited number of days in a single trip and has restrictions on the number of days a person can get treatment abroad. If a policy covers only 45 days of continuous treatment from the date of travel in a single trip, the cumulative is 90 days in a policy year. In case there is a medical emergency on the fiftieth day of your trip, the policy will not cover you. Most of these policies also don’t offer pre- and post-hospitalisation expenses. A few may cover out-patient department but at an additional premium. Some of these policies also don’t offer cashless treatment – the policyholder will need to first bear the treatment cost and later apply for reimbursement.
 

While the premiums are high – two to four times more than what you will pay for the same sum assured for a domestic policy – global health insurance plans also have very stringent terms and conditions. Before you sign up, ensure you would be able to derive the maximum benefit.