Are you wise enough to buy an insurance policy?

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.  

Myths about health insurance

You may harbour certain myths about health insurance, and these myths will prevent you from getting insurance. Dispel these wrong notions today.

In times of increasing illness and stress, every person needs sufficient health insurance for himself and his loved ones. Despite knowing the benefits of health insurance policies, however, people take insufficient health cover so that they have to pay lower premiums. The fallacy of this thinking becomes apparent when one meets with a serious accident or dies, and the family has to bear the brunt of huge medical expenses without health insurance.

Here are 5 myths associated with health insurance that one should dispel at the earliest:

1. The only benefit of health insurance is for tax rebates.

Many people erroneously believe that buying health insurance policies will give them tax benefits. Hence, they buy a policy based on how much rebate they can get in every financial year. One needs to purchase health insurance plans for future security, not tax rebates. Hence, it is important to buy a policy that gives sufficient coverage and several benefits to the whole family.

2. You are ineligible for health insurance if you have a disease.

This is completely false. You may have to pay a higher premium, and you can claim insurance money for treatment of your disease only after a certain time period has elapsed. However, all health insurance policies in India come with a pre-existing disease clause; the benefits of the policy will fructify later than others. It is permissible to take the best health insurance despite a pre-existing disease, however, certain conditions are to be met.

3. You cannot get health insurance if you are not admitted to hospital.

This used to be true earlier in India. Today, however, health insurance in India is growing steadily and insurance providers are making sure that customers receive the benefits of insurance without or without hospitalisation. Health insurance policies today cover even pre-hospitalisation medical expenses as well as post-operative care and therapy. Some insurance policies also give the policy holder a daily allowance during hospital stay, while others also pay for OPD expenses.

4. Health insurance is only for ‘serious’ causes.

This is absolutely untrue. Many people are stunned to discover that health insurance can cover OPD expenses, give daily cash allowance, pay for minor surgery and even cover the expenses of maternity and pregnancy check-ups. However, one must check the conditions of the policy for coverage, as also the time that needs to elapse for claiming benefits after the policy is activated.

5. Cashless insurance is available everywhere.

To avail of the cashless insurance benefit, the hospital treating the patient MUST be connected to the cashless treatment network. One cannot expect this benefit from every hospital. Conversely, one must include the treating hospital in the hospital reimbursement claim to avail of the insurance money.