PhonePe sees rapid demand for Coronavirus insurance products as cases rise

With Covid-19 cases rising across the country, Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe is witnessing an increasing trend related to the adoption of its Coronavirus (Covid-19) 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. These mainly include users in smaller towns and rural areas of the country.

“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 hospitalized for Covid-19,” said Gunjan Ghai, vice president and head of insurance, PhonePe. “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,” he said.

The top states contributing to sales included Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Gujarat. PhonePe has seen a fivefold jump in corona 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.

The claims from customers of more than Rs 3.5 crore have already been paid. Nearly 75 per cent of the claims came from customers residing in smaller towns and rural areas of the country. PhonePe offers this insurance in association with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. 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 a 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.

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