This Indian startup is now offering an insurance product that covers coronavirus

• Digit Insurance’s latest product is a ‘need of the hour’ insurance product for coronavirus.
• A person who is tested positive can claim 100% of the insurance, while quarantined people can claim 50% of the sum insured.
• The coverage can be for upto ₹2 lakh while it starts at ₹25,000.

Indian insurtech startup Digit Insurance introduced a new product for coronavirus. With premiums starting at ₹299, the startup is calling it need-based insurance cover.

A person who is tested positive can claim 100% of the insurance, while those quarantined can claim 50% of the sum insured. The coverage can go upto ₹2 lakh while it starts at ₹25,000.

“We are offering this as a flat benefit cushion cover, for both positive and quarantined cases. While for positive cases we pay 100%, 50% of sum insured is paid for quarantined cases so that even in the smallest way possible, it compensates for the loss of income during this period,” said Kamesh Goyal, Chairman, Digit Insurance.

For quarantined cases, even if the test is negative, people will get 50% of the sum insured as it covers screenings and tests.

Digit Insurance is also offering a fixed benefit cover with no need for hospital bills.

“It is unfortunate to contract an infection for which treatments are still in the trial phases. In such a time, we saw this cover to be the need of the hour. We understand that at such a devastating time, customers wouldn’t want to be stuck doing paperwork and running around to raise money to pay for the multiple screening and treatment tests,” said Goyal.

The insurance product has been filed under insurance regulator IRDAI’s sandbox regulations that encourage insurers to launch and test innovative product offerings.

India has been under the threat of coronavirus, with six confirmed cases and six more quarantined. The National capital Delhi is in the eye of the storm as a person from Mayur Vihar tested positive, and the six quarantined cases are linked back to him. Two schools in Noida were shut amid the epidemic scare.

Digit Insurance, was founded by Goyal in 2016 and is backed by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax group. Watsa had pumped in $140 million into the insurtech startup. In May 2019, it was reported that Fairfax might invest more into the startup.

The startup was also listed in the global Fintech 250 list by CB Insights, being the only Indian company to do so.

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