PhonePe Sees Rising Demand For Coronavirus Insurance

As the Covid-19 spike continues to spread fear of fresh wave, India reported 1,26,227 new cases, the biggest single-day rise in infections. As many as 685 fatalities push India's infection tally to 1,29,28,574, death toll to 1,66,862. The unrelenting rise in cases has raised the alarm on insurance in several households. PhonePe shared trends on the adoption of its coronavirus insurance product launched last year. The analysis of sales and claims data over the past year showed that coronavirus insurance has seen widespread adoption with 75 per cent of policies bought by customers in smaller towns outside the tier-1 cities. The top states contributing to sales included Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, and Gujarat. PhonePe has seen a fivefold jump in coronavirus insurance sales in March 2021 (when cases started rising nationally) vis-a-vis February.

In terms of claims paid to customers, the top states included Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Delhi, and Karnataka. Over Rs 3.5 crore claims have been paid by the customers. 

PhonePe in association with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance offers the most affordable coronavirus insurance policy in the market today. The annual premium starts as low as Rs 396 for a cover of Rs 50,000. Customers can also opt for a higher cover of Rs 1,00,000 at an affordable premium of Rs 541. The cover is applicable at any hospital offering Covid-19 treatment. It also covers 30 days of expenses related to pre-hospitalisation costs and post-care medical treatment.

“The last few weeks have seen a resurgence in Covid-19 cases across the country. While the central and state governments are taking several steps towards containing the outbreak, many Indians still don’t have health insurance covers as a result of which they may have to bear an additional financial burden in case someone in their family needs to be hospitalised for Covid-19. Keeping this in mind, we are one of the very few players in the market today who continue to offer the coronavirus insurance product for our vast base of over 287 million registered users,” said Gunjan Ghai, VP & Head of Insurance, PhonePe. 

Customers can buy this product by going to the Health Insurance section on the PhonePe app. They do not need to undertake any medical tests before buying. The entire policy buying process takes less than 2 minutes and customers will be instantly issued their policy documents inside the PhonePe app.

Ten states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab have shown a steep rise in the daily Covid-19 cases accounting for 84.21 per cent of the 1,26,789 new infections. 

With the addition of 6,290 new cases, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has reached 3,56,267.