International travel is opening up, but the widespread Covid pandemic has made travel insurance an absolute necessity for responsible travel today. Apart from the obvious health-related risks, the uncertainty also extends to travel disruptions caused by Covid restrictions in destinations and or in transit airports.
The basic travel insurance covers can be divided into medical and non-medical covers. The medical cover includes medical expenses on sickness or accident in destinations, accidental death, cash on hospitalisation, personal liability and even dental treatment, excluding pre-existing conditions. The non medical covers typically cover baggage related delays or loss, lost passports, hotel/airline cancellations or delays and repatriation of mortal remains. Today, even as most of the existing covers, medical or non-medical, encapsulate risks arising from Covid-related conditions, most insurance policies have explicitly included Covid situations in their policy wordings in a bid to eliminate confusions to the retail buyer.
Covid-induced covers, add-ons
While travellers gear up to expect the unexpected in a post-Covid world, insurance companies too have warmed up to the new reality.
Beginning with an option to defer or cancel travel insurance without additional charge – announced in early April-2020 – insurance plans now comprehensively cover risks specific to Covid. Upon being diagnosed with Covid-19 during a trip, under accident and sickness clause, medical expenses would be covered up to the sum insured. But this can be claimed only under hospitalisation for most policies. Outpatient treatment coverage is offered only in select plans. Care Health Insurance, for instance, offers it. The other two
Covid related risks arise from either trip cancellation or curtailment. Travel insurance policies with Covid cover reimburse ‘non-refundable unused service costs’, including hotel or airline bookings when trips are cancelled due to Covid. If the insured travel companion or immediate family member is diagnosed with Covid-19 prior to the trip, bookings done prior to being diagnosed with Covid are reimbursed upto a certain limit of the sum insured. On being diagnosed with the Covid infection during the trip, similar unutilized non-refundable services can be reimbursed.
Also, additional accommodation and travel expenses incurred due to trip interruption, subject to the sum insured limit are covered as mentioned by Tata AIG. HDFC Ergo travel insurance also provides for hotel accommodation to isolate or quarantine, if one is tested positive during travels. While most policies allow for automatic extension of policy period if a lockdown is imposed in destination regions, ICICI Lombard covers additional lodging and boarding expenses on account of a companion being hospitalized as well. Some plans allow for continued treatment even after policy expires. Tata AIG plans for instance, offers coverage to date of discharge or 60 days post expiry of the policy.
Costs
Pricing primarily depends on trip duration, frequency (multi trip or single trip) and age of the insured. For a 30- year old travelling to the USA for a single trip of 30 days today, the premiums range from Rs. 1,508 to Rs. 2,839 (sourced from Policybazaar.com) for a sum insured of US$ 100,000.
Individual needs have to be kept in mind in choosing the right travel policy. For instance, Tata AIG (Travel Guard Silver Plus) comes with a higher premium of Rs. 2,069 and does not provide hospital cash benefit but does provide US$750 for financial emergency assistance. Reliance General insurance (Reliance Silver) offers a ‘compassionate visit’ feature where a family member can come to the aid of the insured when he/she falls sick when travelling. For a 30 year old travelling to the US for 30 days, the premium comes to Rs. 1,688 here.
Points to note
The need for travel insurance today becomes more pressing when considering the individual travel restrictions imposed by many countries Travel to Dubai for instance will require two RT-PCR tests, one before travel and one after reaching the destination. The test must be conducted 48 hour before departure and self-isolation is mandated till the test report is out. Entry to most European countries on the other hand requires proof of negative test result from 72 hours before departure, proof of vaccination with EMA- approved vaccine (Covishield vaccine in Indian context) or proof of recovery from latest infection.
Travel insurance becomes vitally important to navigate such regulations – especially for the test to be conducted 72 hours before departure, as is seen with many country regulations. When the test turns out to be positive 2-3 days before travel, travel insurance cover with Covid protections will ensure minimizing travel related losses by helping reimburse airlines, hotels and other allied deposits that would have been incurred.
