Is PA cover mandatory for bike insurance? (2 Simple Examples)

PA cover stands for Personal Accident cover. A PA cover provides insurance coverage against accidental hospitalization. For instance, if a bike rider has met with an accident and he has a PA cover of 10 Lacs, he will be eligible to receive health insurance coverage up to 10 Lacs.

Now, the question arises “Is PA cover mandatory?” Yes, taking a PA cover is mandatory for anyone taking a bike insurance policy, be it a Third-Party bike insurance policy or a comprehensive bike insurance policy, PA cover is mandatory.

That being said, if a person already has a separate accident insurance policy (with coverage of 15 Lacs or beyond), he does not need to opt for an additional PA cover while buying bike insurance. Let us understand this with the help of 2 simple examples.

Example 1

Let us assume that Mr. Shyam wants to take a bike insurance policy. At the same time, he does not have any accidental insurance under this name. In this case, Mr. Shyam will need to compulsorily buy a PA cover along with purchasing his bike insurance as per The Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.

Example 2

Now, let us assume that Mr. Tony wants to purchase a bike insurance policy. Mr. Tony has a separate health insurance policy under his name that also provides coverage against accidents.

In this case, Mr. Tony does not need to opt for additional PA coverage while buying bike insurance. He can simply buy a plain vanilla bike insurance policy without the PA coverage.

Further, it should be noted that the sum insured under an accidental policy should be at least 15 Lacs for the person to wave off additional PA coverage.

Finally, it would be prudent choice to opt for additional PA coverage even though a person has an additional accidental insurance coverage as the increase in premium is very marginal, and in return, the policyholder is provided additional accidental coverage.