I am worried with the news surrounding dengue, swine flu and malaria. I also read about policy for dengue – is my existing health insurance not suited for these?
Bimal Gurung, Delhi
You have heard correctly about the dengue specific covers, which take care of health-related expenses from infliction of dengue. These are definitely better than a standalone health policy, because unlike a standard policy, which has restricted OPD cover, these dengue-specific plans have significant OPD cover. However, such plans typically have low insurance cover. For example, hospitalisation cover may be limited to Rs 1 lakh and OPD cover may be restricted to Rs 10,000. Some of these also offer fixed benefit, which means under them, you will receive a lump sum in case dengue is diagnosed. The fixed benefit plans work better as supplementary plans to the traditional health insurance plans. You should anyway have a standard health insurance plan to take care of hospitalisation expenses linked to any ailment, including dengue.
