3 answers to common questions about whether your insurance covers coronavirus Covid-19.

• Does your health/medical Insurance cover your hospitalisation and medical expenses if you contract Covid-19?

  Answer : It depends. You need to check with your insurer, and check periodically.

  Unfortunately, health insurers have different approaches and the best thing to do is to check with your health insurer about whether Covid-19 is covered.

  The issue is that most Malaysian medical policies exclude medical expenses caused by communicable diseases requiring quarantine by law. Covid-19 falls within this exclusion and is therefore, at first pass, not covered.

  However, some, but not all, insurers have come out to say that they will waive this exclusion. Insurers who are members of the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) and the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) have committed to waive this exclusion so that Covid-19 is covered. This waiver is not permanent, and will be reviewed by each LIAM/MTA member periodically (some reviews are from month-to-month, others have committed for longer periods). If the Covid-19 situation deteriorates significantly, such as if the World Health Organisation declares it to be a pandemic, then you should expect waivers to be reviewed immediately, and maybe even withdrawn.

  To make things complicated, insurers under LIAM and MTA do not cover the full spectrum of health insurers. Members under Persatuan Insurance Am Malaysia (PIAM) which is the association of general insurers, have not collectively committed to waive the communicable disease exclusion. When we wrote to the president of PIAM, Mr Anthony Lee, he advised individuals to check with their general insurer as to whether the exclusion for Covid-19 will be waived.

  In short:

  • Read your policy terms carefully, especially the exclusions
  • If excluded, contact your health/medical insurer to see if they are currently waiving the exclusion

• If I contract Covid-19 and death results, will my life insurance still pay out the sum assured?

  Answer: Yes

  We’re happy to say that most, if not all, life insurance policies will cover death from Covid-19. For your peace of mind, we can confirm Fi Life life insurance policies covers death resulting from Covid-19.

• If I contract Covid-19, can I claim that I have suffered a critical illness under my critical illness policy (or rider)?

  Answer: Generally, no. However…

  Covid-19 is not recognised as a critical illness under most comprehensive critical illness policies. However, if a person who contracts Covid-19 suffers complications leading to a specific critical illness stipulated by your critical illness policy (such as End Stage Lung Disease), then your critical illness benefit might be claimable. You need to confirm this with your critical illness insurer.

  Fi Life’s Critical Illness Add-On does not cover Covid-19.