By Manasije Mishra, CEO Max Bupa
Communicable diseases including the vector borne type like Dengue and Malaria are at an all-time rise in India owing to urbanization and globalization. India?s climate and huge population have both been favourable for the spread of the disease.
On the other hand, medical inflation, rising healthcare cost and advancement in medical technology has directly affected the treatment cost of such diseases. Health insurance extends help to cover hospitalization expenses however with health insurance penetration level at less than 5% in India; most people would end up paying it from their pockets.
At Max Bupa, we cover hospitalization for vector borne diseases? under our ?indemnity and fixed benefit plans including our flagship product Heartbeat, Health Companion and also as a part of Hospital cash under our fixed benefit product Health Assurance wherein ?the customers can claim for additional expenses incurred due to hospitalization of their loved ones.
Over the past one year, we have observed a 25% increase in claims related vector borne diseases. There has been a 5% increase in claims related to Dengue and Malaria. With the increase in hospitalization costs, the average claim amount for such diseases is also on a rise, with most customers claims over Rs 40,000. In our experience, there have been more customer claims from key Northern cities like?Delhi, Mumbai,? Bangalore and Surat for dengue while we have received more claims for Malaria from Eastern cities like Kolkata.
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