Health insurance is
not mandatory in many countries. At times some countries , depending
upon their evaluations of the
financial status of the applicant for a visa, may like to ensure that the applicant is capable of
financing his medical expenses in the event of the a health contingency.
The public sector non-life insurance
policies companies launched the Overseas
medical Policies or Overseas
Mediclaim policies , as they are popularly known, in India for
the first time in 1984, . The purpose of
such a policy was to meet the medical
expenses of the Indian residents undertaking bonafide trips abroad for policy was a to
meet the medical expenses business or
official purpose or for holidays accompanied by the spouse and children , or
to offer healthcare to foreign
nationals in India working for MNCs and
receiving their salaries in Indian
rupees...
Initially the cover started purely as a medical insurance cover and subsequently its scope was widened to include personal accident loss of passport , loss of checked baggage and personal belongings delay in checked baggage , personal liability etc., Private insurance companies operating in India also offer Overseas Healthcare Plans more or loss on the same lines as the Overseas Mediclaim policies offered by the sector insurance companies. More appropriately the private companies promote their plans as / Travel Insurance Cover’ under different names. Some insurance companies are planning to introduce short-term destination-specific overseas insurance cover
Initially the cover started purely as a medical insurance cover and subsequently its scope was widened to include personal accident loss of passport , loss of checked baggage and personal belongings delay in checked baggage , personal liability etc., Private insurance companies operating in India also offer Overseas Healthcare Plans more or loss on the same lines as the Overseas Mediclaim policies offered by the sector insurance companies. More appropriately the private companies promote their plans as / Travel Insurance Cover’ under different names. Some insurance companies are planning to introduce short-term destination-specific overseas insurance cover
at a cheaper cost for
short duration travels . For
example those who would like to travel
in Asia or the Asia-Pasific, region for a week or so may avail of such short durations plans that are competitively priced. An over seas
medical insurance cover has two components. That part of the
insurance cover that deals purely with the medical aspect of the insurance . The part that deals with matters other than medical care. A majority of
insurance companies offer overseas insurance with both components mentioned above....
At the same time, the option
available to the proponent
to purchase an economy package
covering only healthcare requirements . To avoid any hassle in the event of a claim many of the insurance companies
offering such plans insist on the ECG report , urine report , etc., in
case the age of the proponents is 60 years or more . For travel in certain countries, such medical reports
may be insisted upon even for those whose age is
less then 60 years. As far as
the pricing is concerned, it is related to the age of the traveller the duration
of the journey, the amount of
cover required and the regions in which
travel is to be undertaken. For
example , ICICI Lombard’s travel insurance product has different plans for the individual traveller Platinum Gold , Silver and Bronze. the Silver Cover targets the cost-conscious traveller. the Silver
Cover is vanilla, pure-health plan with medical repatriation and dental cover benefits. The latter two are offered over and above the medical sum
insured. The silver Family Plan is an
optional with attractive pricing for the family. It provides price
advantage while providing
economics cover. The company also offers Corporate or Group Travel Plans,
comprising basic. Cover a cost-effective purpose specific product and Standard
cover, a value for money product. ICICI Lombard’s travel insurance does not insist on any medical examinations up to age of 70 and in certain cases, covers
pre-existent diseases. The Senior Citizens Overseas Travel plan generally excludes pre-existing diseases . Some of the companies without
specifically excluding cover the sickness under certain life-threatening circumstances. In the absence of any
definition as to what constitutes a life
threatening situation one looses his/her sleep through out the
sojourn. To enable the senior citizens travelling abroad
with a peaceful frame of mind the insurance companies
may render yeomen service by
defining the pre existing conditions
or pre-existing diseases and also
elaborating the present vague and
amorphous statement that the preexisting diseases would would be eligible for hospitalization expense
under ‘life threatening
situations’ Travel Care Classic
is a standard travel insurance plan with accident
and medical reimbursement coverage
of up to US 50, 000 . This
plan conceived by Tata AIG is exclusively designed
for Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. the international travel and tour operators,
with a network of 54 branches across 16 cities in India . The company has a global presence with offices in all major
cities of the world. Many of the private sector insurance companies offering travel
insurance have tied up with
reputed travel agencies and tour operators . Such policies are also available online