Diabetes Covers

The four insurance options for diabetics rank differently on various counts. Choose according to your needs

Diabetes can affect many organs and, eventually render them useless. In diabetes, cells are unable to absorb glucose from the blood due to insufficient production of insulin in the body or their failure to respond to the insulin produced. In Type I diabetes, insulin production stops completely; in Type II, it is inadequate. Type II is easier to manage with diet control and exercise. The policies cover only this variant of diabetes.

Insurance cushions the hit from diabetes induced ailments such as kidney failure (kidney replacement can cost Rs 4 lakh), heart disease (a bypass surgery can cost Rs 2 lakh) and blindness (correction can cost Rs 20,000). There are six covers available to diabetics. (Also see Cover For The Diabetics, 15 December 2006).

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has three such policies—Diabetes Assure, Diabetes Care and Diabetes Care Plus. Star Health and Allied Insurance has a diabetes policy. National Insurance covers diabetics both for health and critical illness under its Varistha Mediclaim policy. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance charges diabetics additional premium, depending on their sugar level, if they buy its critical illness cover.

Which one to buy. If you are over 70 years old, the Varistha Mediclaim policy is the only diabetes cover available to you. So, the 10 per cent additional premium that the company charges diabetics, is worth it. The maximum entry age is 60 years for ICICI Prudential and 65 for Star Health. The policy tenure is five years for both.

While Star entertains only Type II diabetics, ICICI Prudential accepts even prediabetics, that is, those with impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose.

Also, some of the policies are like critical illness covers, that is, an amount will be paid out. Others are like health covers, which pay for hospitalisation, among other things. To choose a policy, go with what you need and the premium you can pay. If you have a life cover already,
you could skip that in the diabetes policy.