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NEED FOR HEALTH INSURANCE
Due to skyrocketing inflation, medicare or medical costs are rising year on year. As a matter of fact, inflation in medicare is higher than inflation in food and other articles. Single major hospitalization can cost lakhs of rupees which can seriously burn a very big hole in one’s savings or worse, burden one with huge debt. Health Insurance plans help in spreading such a risk to larger number of people, and hence bring the cost down per person. With health insurance, you are assured of a more secure future in terms of health and money both. This makes health insurance critical for individuals, especially if they are responsible for the financial well-being of the family.
There is a popular saying about health insurance:“Buy health insurance when you don’t want it, because you may not get it when you want it”.
In India penetration of health insurance coverage is abysmally low. There is a lack of knowledge regarding the existing insurance products/services in the markets. On top of it, there are numerous misconceptions about Insurance prevalent in the Indian Markets. Since, the general public are by and large ignorant about the benefits of availing healthcare insurance policies, there lies an urgent need to educate the masses regarding the importance of Healthcare Insurance and its benefits.
Majority of the salaried professionals are provided health insurance cover by their organizations and majority of them are dependent on such health insurance cover only to counter their health contingencies. But most of the organizations provide only basic health insurance cover which might cover individuals from minor ailments. However, this amount might often be insufficient in case of a major emergencies. Beside this, the validity of the health insurance cover provided by the organization is connected with the time span of your association with the organization and such health insurance plan may lapse once you leave the organization due to job change, job loss and retirement.
Buying an insurance policy at an older age is very costly and if one develops health issues, the health insurance company tends to exclude pre-existing conditions which defeat the whole purpose of buying a health insurance as well as most health insurance companies have an upper age limit for the policies, which means one would have limited options after retirement. Individuals would then liquidate their savings or assets to meet any medical contingencies. This might affect their budgeting and financial plans they hold for achieving their goals. So, it is advised that professionals should opt for personal health insurance also. A personal health Insurance cover is valid as long as the payments are made.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE BUYING A HEALTH INSURANCE
1. Buy a health cover as early in life as possible, as you are likely to make no or few claims in earlier stages of life, you can get the benefit of no-claim bonus and add up to the original coverage every claim-free year.
2. You are buying an insurance for your old age do not go for a small sum-insured if you can afford more. In current times of high medical inflation rates, failing to hold adequate amount of health insurance cover can prove to be a major personal finance disaster. This could lead to either poor health care because of non-affordability or spiral an individual into financial distress due to high medical bills.
3. Check the sub-limits and co-pay of the policy. Some policies come with sub-limit clause which does not cover certain expenses like room rent, doctor’s fee, etc, and certain ailment expenses like cataract surgery etc. beyond a certain limit irrespective of the actual expenses.Another condition is the COPAY – it is basically the share of admissible claim that the customer would have to pay from their own pocket. For instance, with copay option of 10%, the claim amount is of Rs. 50,000, and the admissible claim is Rs. 48,000 then the copay amount would be Rs. 4800. The Total amount you would have to pay is Rs. 6800/- (Rs. 2000 deduction in the policy + Rs. 4800 of Copay) It is advisable to buy policy with no sub-limits and co-pay.
4. Check the maximum renewal ceasing age of the policy. This is the age when your policy will discontinue. Today, there are policies available which can be renewed for lifetime. Go for lifetime renewable policies
5. Check the waiting period for the ailments under the policy, pre-existing diseases are usually excluded for the first four years but certain health insurance policies are covering even after 2 and 3 years. There are time- based exclusions too, which exclude the treatment of time based ailments in the first two years. Similarly, health policies do not entertain claim for the first 30 days except accidental claim.