Life Insurers extend assistance for COVID-19 vaccination complications resulting in hospitalisation
Some life insurance companies also offer cash relief incentives for hospitalisation in the event policyholders develop adverse effects from the COVID-19 vaccine
Kuala Lumpur, 11 March 2021 – The Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) is pleased to announce that majority of life insurance companies in the country are extending financial assistance to their policyholders who may develop side effects or complications resulting in hospitalisation from the COVID-19 vaccination under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme.
The coverage includes hospitalizations costs that are medically necessary and reasonable due to the side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the financial assistance is subjected to the terms & conditions as different insurance companies may have different terms and conditions.
A number of life insurance companies are also offering cash relief programme for side effects of COVID-19 vaccine under their respective COVID-19 Vaccine Fund/Medical Assistance Programme.
The Medical Assistance Programme come in the following forms:
1. Reimbursement of medical bill for COVID-19 patients from RM5,000 to RM20,000 and Post COVID-19 vaccination support up to RM5,000 for hospitalisation due to vaccine side effects
2. Medical assistance up to RM5,000 per claim and special death benefits of RM7,500
3. Hospitalisation income of RM200 per day for 7 days and RM10,000 death benefit, which occurs within 30 days from vaccination.
4. RM500 Cash Relief for hospitalisation due to adverse effects from immunisation within 7 days after receiving the vaccine
Speaking on the National Immunisation Programme launched by the Government recently, LIAM CEO, Mark O’Dell lauds the Government’s proactive efforts in taking preventive measure to protect and build immunity among the Rakyat against the COVID-19 virus.
“We urge all Malaysians to play their part in this COVID-19 battle by registering themselves for the immunisation programme via the MySejahtera application.
“Policyholders are also advised to contact their insurance company directly to find out more about the assistance offered in the event that they may develop side effects from the COVID-19 vaccination,” said O’Dell.
For the past one year, the insurance and takaful industry has played an important role in implementing various relief measures to assist policyholders during the pandemic. These include the set-up of the RM8 million COVID-19 Test Fund (CTF) in March 2020 to support the Government’s efforts to conduct more tests on Malaysians to curb the spread of the virus. The CTF provides a fixed cash reimbursement up to RM300 for the cost of COVID-19 testing for policyholders who are at risks or categorised as PUI (Persons Under Investigation).
Since the third wave of the pandemic, the CTF eligibility criteria has been extended to include asymptomatic patients and hospital admissions due to emergency and semi emergency surgeries. To date, the CTF has received almost 30,000 submissions via the MyCTF portal at www.MyCTF.my .
In addition to industry-wide efforts, individual life insurers have also rolled out various schemes to aid policyholders. These include the deferment of 3 months insurance premium payment granted to policyholders who were financially affected by the pandemic. For this year, majority of life insurance companies have extended this 3-month deferment of insurance premium facility to June 2021. Policyholders are advised to contact their individual insurance companies directly for further details on this facility.
Individual life insurance companies have also extended additional relief measures for policyholders in 2021 in a form of financial assistance which include hospitalization allowance and lump-sum death/ compassionate benefits due to COVID-19.
