Should policyholders get a choice between Covid-19 vaccine and annual health check-up?

Health insurance policies offer policyholders a free medical check-up once every four years. Many companies also offer it annually. While most policyholders are aware of the feature but still very few avail of the facility.

Less takers for annual health check-up
In the view of the Covid-19 pandemic, experts believe that the health insurance policies need to be reviewed. Considering that not many people currently go for an annual check-up, it could be a big game-changer if insurers give the reimbursement option for the cost of vaccination to policyholders.

Covid-19 vaccination is meant to protect policyholders against the likelihood of getting infected with Covid-19. Even if they get infected post their vaccination, it is likely to result in a less severe hospitalisation and hence, vaccination can definitely be considered as a protection shield for policyholders from an underwriting perspective.

Inoculation is more important
“As per our view, for the rest of the calendar year 2021, when the government is planning to inoculate major population of the country, rather than annual health check-up vaccination is more important for the customer and therefore, we may see trends wherein insurance companies trying to offer reimbursements for the cost of vaccination in lieu of annual health check-up. Annual health check-up as a benefit under the policy is meant to be a step towards good health by knowing your health status. In fact, in the current scenario, between Covid-19 vaccination and annual health check-up, the customer would definitely choose vaccination first because it will protect against ongoing Covid-19 infection,” said Nikhil Apte, chief product officer – product factory (health insurance), Royal Sundaram General Insurance.

Irdai guidelines
Recently, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) also requested all the insurers to make special arrangements to facilitate eligible category among their policyholders to get vaccinated as a group or individually. The regulator asked that insurers may create awareness about vaccination among the policyholders through effective communication via SMS or email.

While a routine health check-up is a step towards staying fit, by giving an option for reimbursement of covid vaccination insurance companies may push people further towards the inoculation drive.