Secure your family with a family health insurance plan

Your worst nightmare is not the one where you or a loved one require hospitalisation – it is when you require hospitalisation and do not have health insurance.

We can never predict what the future will bring. One moment, we are successful, wealthy and in great health. But in the next moment, we may be bed-ridden, ill and facing bankruptcy. There is just a split second difference between the two, and you can do little to prevent a catastrophe from taking place.

Ekta Ruparel, a housewife, faced such a catastrophe a year ago. Driving home from a mall with her husband and son, their car met with a serious accident. “I was unhurt but my husband and son were injured. I had no access to my husband’s bank accounts, so I could not spend the money that was in his account. I had to borrow money from relatives to pay for the hospital expenses. I did not even have time to mourn when my husband passed away two weeks later.”

She believes that if she had pushed her husband to buy a good health insurance plan when everything was fine, her destiny would have been different. “I had to get a job to support the house and to repay all the loans. I wish we had taken insurance, then none of this would have happened,” she says.

Ekta’s story takes place with alarming regularity in many households in India. And yet, most people are still reluctant to take the family health insurance. A family health plan insulates the family against the financial shocks of accidents or illness. Lack of family health care insurance is the riskiest way to live in today’s times, when manmade and natural catastrophes are striking the world with regularity.

Shriram Iyer, a banker, had taken a personal insurance cover several years ago, but now has a comprehensive family medical insurance plan that also takes care of his aged parents. “Most people buying health insurance are only focussed on themselves. But what happens when one’s child is ill or one’s parent meets with an accident? Family health plans take care of these eventualities.”

When buying health insurance for the family, look out for family health plans that are offered on a floater basis. However, ensure that you renew them regularly and are careful with buying a plan whose premiums you can afford to pay. Study all the clauses carefully so that all bases are covered.

“I used to think that I will get the amount that I file a claim for,” says Esther Fernandes, a marketing professional. “However, when we admitted my father to hospital last year, I was stunned to discover that the family health plan imposed sub limits on the claim. There were limits imposed on everything, from the hospital room charges to total expenses. I had not studied what these sub-limits were. We had to pay a large chunk of money out of our pockets,” she says.

All in all, buying family medical insurance is the safest cushion one can provide for the whole family, whatever the future may bring.

*Characters in the article are purely illustrative.