What is diabetes health insurance?
Diabetes health insurance gives you coverage for treatments arising out of a diabetic condition. Diabetes is a health condition that affects people mostly between 20-60 years of age and often, it becomes an expensive disease to treat and cure. It is better that a person is sufficiently insured well-beforehand if they suspect that they might develop diabetic conditions later in life due to family history and genetics.
Benefits of diabetes health insurance?
In the recent past, we have seen how health cannot be ignored any longer and the sheer need for each to have themselves financially secured against infection-triggering diseases. If you have diabetes, the chances of developing and spreading infection in your immune system are always higher. Hence medical insurance against the chronic ailment is a wise way to go about it.
Diabetes requires expensive treatment given the complications that arise from the chronic nature of the disease. To add to that, patients with diabetes stand a higher chance of developing severe Covid-19 infection that may lead to further deterioration of health. Medical insurance will ease your financial worry as it will cover all the expenses ranging from diagnosis cost to treatment to hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation care.
What complications can arise due to diabetes?
Although there’s little to no cure for diabetes, a healthy lifestyle can help you prevent it and keep it under control. Diabetes mellitus, a group of diseases that affect the functioning of the blood sugar level often reduces the production of insulin in the body. Insulin, released by the pancreas into the body, helps glucose (the primary source of energy) to enter our cells. However, when insulin is not produced enough by the body, the glucose stays in the blood for a long giving rise to diabetes.
Although the causes of diabetes are varied, the excess sugar content in the blood can lead to several complications including kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, dental disease, nerve damage and so on.
Diabetes is mainly of 2 types — Type 1 and Type 2. Under Type 1 Diabetes, your body attacks and destroys the cells in your pancreas that create the insulin. And under Type 2 diabetes, your body may not produce insulin and use it well even. While type 1 can occur at any age, generally type 2 affects middle-aged people.
Another type of diabetes is gestational diabetes which develops in pregnant women and can have long-term effects on both the mother and the child.
To best prevent it, seek medical expertise on the slightest symptoms of diabetes. Have a change in lifestyle and maintain a diet that will reduce the chances of triggering the condition. Similarly, you must be regular with your medical check-up and follow-ups.
What to know about diabetes health insurance?
Like all health insurance policies, if you have subscribed to your diabetes health insurance after you have been diagnosed with diabetes, then the diabetic condition will be considered as pre-existing. In that case, there would be a waiting time, around three months, before you can avail of the insurance.
In case your diabetes is diagnosed and require medical treatment after the issuance of the diabetes health insurance, then you can avail of it immediately depending on the terms and conditions.
What does the plan generally cover?
- In case of a long waiting period, one can add to a critical rider in the base plan to cover diabetic conditions immediately.
- Other benefits of diabetes health insurance would include coverage of ambulance charges, tax benefits under Section 80D, rat terrier mix with dachshund coverage for domiciliary treatment, day care treatment, reimbursement claims and so on.
- Many times, diabetes health insurance also covers daytime hospital costs if you don’t need to be hospitalised due to non-severe conditions.
- Outpatient expenses including pre-operative to post-operative care also come under the coverage.
- If there is no option for a cashless transaction, one can also opt for reimbursement claims later.
What is not covered?
- There is a myriad of diabetic-specific plans available in the market that come customised with specific complications. While most diabetes health insurance plans cover Type 2 diabetes, there might be exceptions to Type 1.
- Further, there would be a few specific expenses under the two types that might not be included in the comprehensive medical insurance.
- Additionally, there might be age restrictions on certain diabetes health insurance plans. Hence, it’s best recommended that you opt for a plan that allows you a lifelong renewable policy as diabetes is not completely curable.
Besides, If you think any medical insurance plan would be sufficient to cover the cost of diabetic-related complications, you might want to reconsider the same as diabetes health insurance charges a higher premium for frequent claims.
