Written By: Pavitra Sampath | Updated : May 21, 2014 1:20 PM IST
I am a 50-year-old man and have been diagnosed with diabetes recently. I fell ill due to some complications and was hospitalised for it. I later found out that my insurance company would not cover the cost of my care. Is this right? What health insurance options do I have?
Most insurance companies have policies in place that state that people with certain condition, known as pre-exsisting conditions are not reimbursed or provided with an insurance cover -- diabetes is one such condition. Apart from that, there are certain factors and diseases for which the company has the right to refuse you medical cover. Conditions like HIV/AIDS, other venereal diseases, self-inflicted injuries, and diseases arising out of alcoholism or drug addiction are not covered by a health insurance policy.
Diabetes is considered a pre-exsisting condition and an insurance company will usually have a 'waiting period' before they cover your medical expenses for diabetes. A waiting period is usually common to most insurance policies and basically means that you will have to pay a premium to the company for the length of the waiting period even though you will not receive any benefits of your policy. The good part here is that this clause does not apply to cases of emergency admission.
Read more about causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.
There is a loophole in this clause though. If you get admitted for an unrelated disease that is not mentioned in the 'waiting period' clause you will be covered for the illness and the treatment for diabetes will also be covered for that period.
As for your question about insurance companies providing insurance to people with diabetes, currently New India Insurance is the only insurance company that provides health insurance to people with diabetes without charging extra premium. Read more about why New India Insurance scrapped the premium for people with diabetes.
Also read:
Other harmful effects of diabetes:
Howto live well with Diabetes:
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