Amazon announces free COVID-19 health insurance for its sellers in India

Amazon India has announced that it has arranged COVID-19 health insurance cover for sellers on its marketplace. The free-of-cost insurance of one year, in partnership with Acko, will also cover domiciliary treatment expenses. That is, Amazon will fund the premium for sellers that will ensure financial safety against COVID to its sellers. Sellers who have had an active listing on Amazon between January 1 2020 and May 1 2021 can participate. They will get coverage for COVID-19 hospitalization and medical expenses up to INR 50,000.

Manish Tiwary, VP, Amazon India said, “We remain committed to serving the nation in its fight against COVID-19. As part of our efforts to support marketplace sellers during these challenging times, we are funding and enabling sellers to opt for this COVID-19 health insurance policy for their benefit. We are working tirelessly with sellers to serve customers across India safely and want to ensure that medical expenses are the least of their worries at this time. While we sincerely hope that none of the marketplace sellers need this; the policy ensures that if they need it, their medical expenses are taken care of through the insurance.”

How can sellers register for the insurance policy?

Amazon, in partnership with Acko, will provide coverage, manage the policy delivery and handle claims and reimbursements. There is a 30-Day enrolment window, wherein eligible sellers can enrol themselves by providing basic personal particulars and KYC documents. The registration and opt-in does not require and medical test. For each seller account, the insurance policy will cover only one person.

After the seller registers with Amazon's Insurance, it will provide a Unique Health Identification (UHID) number. To file claims and reimbursements, the sellers need to use this number post-registration. Users can directly claim reimbursement, from Acko, the company said in a statement. Further, this insurance policy is applicable for the sellers only, who test  positive for COVID-19 for the first time. Moreover, they should have tested positive after 15 days from the date of issuance of cover. The company also announced that the insurance policy covers expenses incurred on co-morbidity + Covid-19.

Other initiatives by Amazon

For the benefit of its sellers, the company also announced that it will cover the COVID-19 vaccine costs for its eligible sellers and one dependent. In addition, valid from May 1, 2021, till May 31, 2021, it has introduced a host of measures to help marketplace sellers navigate the economic challenges caused by the pandemic. These include fee waivers, reimbursements, policy and performance relaxations for impacted sellers. Furthermore, the ecoommerce giant, in India, has collaborated with Ketto which will enable SMBs to use the crowdfunding platform to raise funds to support their communities. Ketto will waive off the success fees for all such fundraisers hosted these marketplace sellers.