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[Free COVID-19 Extra Protection] Hospital cash for isolation facilities? Free extra video consultation service too? (Updated Apr 2022)
The Omicron variant has triggered a severe fifth wave of the local outbreak, with cumulative confirmed cases surpassing one million. At present, many insurers are still offering free additional COVID-19 cover, such as hospital cash, compulsory quarantine cash for policyholders, and additional death benefits. Some insurers, however, no longer provide free additional cover, including Prudential, Hang Seng, Well Link and YF Life.
As at 1 April, AXA Hong Kong and Macau, Blue Cross, Bupa, Cigna, FTLife, Manulife, Sun Life and Tahoe Insurance were all providing relevant cover.
Table: Free additional cover for COVID-19 (updated in April 2022)
| Insurer | 安盛 AXA | 藍十字 Blue Cross | 保柏 Bupa | 信諾 Cigna |
| Applicable insurance products | Group medical insurance | Individual indemnity hospitalisation/ VHIS/ group medical |
Individual/group/Bupa Hang Seng | Designated insurance products |
| Applicable customers | Designated employee benefits insured employees and their families under hospitalisation policies |
Insured members | New/existing customers | New/existing customers |
| Coverage period |
From now
until further notice |
From now
to 30 June 2022 |
From now to
31 December 2022 |
From now to
30 June 2022 |
| Death benefit | - | - | - | - |
| COVID-19 hospital cash |
$700 per day | $800 per day | $800 per day | - |
| Maximum hospital stay | 45 days | 45 days | 45 days | - |
| Compulsory quarantine cover | - | - | - | $2,000 per day, up to 14 days, including home/quarantine camp/hospital quarantine applicable only to Premier Medical Protect customers |
| Video consultation | - | - | 2 times between 1 April 2022 and 30 June 2022, waiving consultation fees, basic medication fees and drug delivery charges1 |
Waiver of medication delivery service fee and co-payment (if applicable) applicable only to designated customers2 |
| Waiting period | Waived | - | - | - |
| Speedy claims | - | Priority handling | Priority handling | Priority handling |
| Insurer | FT Life | Manulife | Sun Life | Tahoe Life |
| Applicable insurance products | Imperial Medical Elite Health Plan | Individual Financial/ Group Medical Hospitalisation |
Selected eligible medical products | All |
| Applicable customers |
New/existing customers
|
New/existing customers3
|
New/existing customers |
Existing customers |
| Coverage period | Per policy year |
From now to 30 June 2022 |
From now
to 30 June 2022 |
From now
to 30 June 2022 |
| Death benefit | - | $100,0005 | - | |
|
COVID-19
hospital cash
|
- | Policy cover extends to designated community treatment facilities4 |
Policy cover extends to designated community treatment facilities6,7 |
$800 per day |
| Maximum hospital stay | - | Subject to policy | Subject to policy | 50 days |
| Compulsory quarantine cover | Global or Global (excluding the US) plan: $2,000 per day, Asia plan: $1,200 per day, maximum 15 days per policy year, including home/quarantine camp |
- | - | - |
| Video consultation | - | - | - | - |
| Waiting period | If approved on or before 31 May 2022, waiting period reduced to 3 days |
- | - | Waived |
| Speedy claims | - | - | - | 1 day |
|
Notes:
|
||||
Hospital cash compensation up to $40,000
Many consumers buy medical insurance in order to receive faster and more comfortable private healthcare services. However, as COVID-19 is an infectious disease, anyone diagnosed in Hong Kong will be referred to a public hospital for treatment, so the role of ordinary medical insurance is rather limited.
In view of the severe outbreak, insurers have also introduced COVID-19 protection. For example, even if the insured person is admitted to a public hospital, they may still receive hospital cash benefits from the insurer. Compensation is usually calculated on a daily (or weekly) basis. When comparing policies, consumers should note the compensation cap and maximum benefit period. The incubation period of COVID-19 can be 14 days or longer, and treatment and observation take time, so the longer the benefit period, the better.
Among the products above, Tahoe Life offers hospital cash of HK$800 per day, for up to 50 days, bringing the total compensation to as much as HK$40,000, but only existing customers can benefit.
In addition, in response to the latest situation, Manulife and Sun Life have extended the hospital cash cover of selected policies to community treatment facilities, including AsiaWorld-Expo and Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre. Sun Life’s cover also extends to the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre and four temporary hospitals (Tsing Yi, San Tin, Fanling, and the Hong Kong Port Artificial Island of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge).
Some insurers’ compulsory quarantine cover includes home quarantine
Only Cigna and FT Life still offer compulsory quarantine cover. Cigna provides HK$2,000 per day in compensation (capped at 14 days, for Cigna Premier Medical Insurance customers only).
FT Life provides HK$2,000 per day in compensation (for customers with worldwide or worldwide excluding the US coverage under the Imperial Medical Elite Health Plan only), or HK$1,200 per day in compensation (for customers with Asia coverage under the Imperial Medical Elite Health Plan only), capped at 15 days per policy year.
It is worth noting that, in addition to compulsory quarantine in a quarantine camp or hospital, the compulsory quarantine cover under Cigna Premier Medical Insurance and FT Life’s Imperial Medical Elite Health Plan also covers compulsory home quarantine.
Free additional video consultation services; death is also covered
From 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022, Bupa is offering 2 free video consultation services to existing Bupa members who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are showing symptoms. Regardless of whether the insured person already has outpatient cover, they may consult a designated GP via video call, and Bupa will waive the consultation fee, basic medication fee and drug delivery charges.
Cigna designated customers can use the dedicated mobile app to book a doctor and attend a video consultation. Cigna will waive the medication delivery service fee and the co-payment (i.e. deductible, if applicable).
In addition, Sun Life provides designated product customers with cover for death caused by COVID-19, with death benefits of HK$100,000 and HK$200,000 respectively.
Many insurers waive the waiting period, meaning that new policyholders can receive COVID-19 cover immediately; some even offer speedy claims as fast as 1 day. In addition, most insurers are providing free additional COVID-19 cover to both new and existing customers. However, some insurers only provide additional cover to new customers in order to boost sales.
Understand the features of a product before purchasing insurance
Overall, the additional benefits above usually have limited coverage periods and the sums insured are not particularly high, but they do reflect insurers’ goodwill towards customers. Some readers may ask whether, in the current COVID-19 situation, they should rush to buy insurance for these extra benefits. In fact, before buying insurance, you should consider your own needs and understand the role and overall protection of different types of insurance, rather than focusing solely on COVID-19 cover.
- Medical insurance: as patients are admitted to public hospitals rather than private hospitals, the compensation under medical insurance is indeed limited. However, if you want private hospital treatment for other illnesses (other than infectious diseases), it is of course worth considering.
- Critical illness insurance: cover is limited to specified illnesses, and “pneumonia” is not classified as a critical illness. However, if COVID-19 leads to severe chronic lung disease or end-stage lung disease, or if intensive care is required, some critical illness products will provide cover.
- Life insurance: if the insured person dies, their beneficiaries will receive a death benefit, and death caused by COVID-19 is also covered. It is worth noting that term life insurance offers low premiums and high cover: a few hundred dollars a year can provide cover of one million dollars, which most people can probably afford. [Read more in this article]
Insurance is a tool for transferring risk. When a risk materialises, the insurer will pay compensation, but we should also do our best to prevent risks from arising in the first place. During an epidemic, everyone should pay attention to personal hygiene, wear a mask or carry alcohol hand sanitiser when going out, wash hands frequently, avoid crowded places, maintain social distancing, reduce gatherings, and do our part to minimise risk.
Further reading:
〈【COVID-19 vaccine side effects】Can traditional medical insurance pay out?〉
〈【COVID-19】A comparison of free insurance for COVID-19 vaccine side effects〉
Notes:
1. This article was compiled by 10Life from market information collected through various channels and is for general reference only. It does not take into account any individual needs or suitability, and should not be regarded as sales advice. Before taking out insurance, you should discuss suitable insurance options with a licensed insurance adviser, and rely on the information provided by the insurer.
2. Last updated: 1 April 2022.
1. This article was compiled by 10Life from market information collected through various channels and is for general reference only. It does not take into account any individual needs or suitability, and should not be regarded as sales advice. Before taking out insurance, you should discuss suitable insurance options with a licensed insurance adviser, and rely on the information provided by the insurer.
2. Last updated: 1 April 2022.
This English version of this article has been generated by machine translation powered by AI. It is provided solely for reference purposes. In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency between this translation and the original Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.
Last updated: 10 Aug 2026
10Life Editorial Team
Our team of professional content researchers focussing on insurance
10Life Editorial Team
Our team of professional content researchers focussing on insurance
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