Kunal Parashar* (34) was thrilled with
his life till two years ago. He had a high paying job that let him travel all
over the world, a loving family and his own two bedroom house in Mumbai. “I
thought my life was set, that I could retire in a few years and enjoy my family
time. I was thoroughly unprepared for a sudden reversal of fortunes.”
Kunal was detected with a brain tumour
after he complained of fatigue, memory lapses and severe headaches. “I thought
it was related to the stress of my job. I took up yoga, sleeping on time and
eating only home cooked food, but the symptoms remained. Finally, a round of
blood tests and an MRI confirmed the prognosis,” he remembers. “But I was
nonchalant about the surgery, since I had company health insurance.
Imagine my shock when I realised that it would cover only a small part of my
treatment!”
The decision to not take health
insurance on time hit the family hard, as it grappled with Kunal’s
treatment costs. “I had to give up my job because I needed long periods of time
to recuperate. The tumour was a malignant one, which means that the cancer can
recur any time. My savings were completely wiped out, and I am now
contemplating selling my house to make some money available for my treatment,”
he rues.
Don’t let your life’s story pan out
like Kunal’s – invest in health insurance policies that cover the gamut
of future medical and life expenses. It is one thing to not know if one has an
underlying medical condition or if one is about to meet with an accident. But
it is quite another to wilfully not prepare oneself for it with health
insurance plans.
“My father met with an accident last
year, and he was in hospital for a month,” says Ravi Mhatre* (33), Pune
resident. “Thank God my wife had been urging me to take health insurance
for months. I have a family health plan that paid for my father’s
hospitalisation and treatment. I shudder to think what would have happened
without insurance. I would be forced to borrow money from friends,” he says.
The good news is that health
insurance in India is growing steadily, with many health insurance
companies like Max Bupa offering excellent individual and family plans.
These plans cover the gamut of medical treatments costs and also offer cashless
hospitalisation cover. Other features include critical illness cover, daily
hospital cash benefit and costs for diagnostic tests.
