When taking Health Insurance becomes Necessary…

What is the right time to take health insurance for oneself or for the family? Do it while you’re still young and in fiscal control.

Consider this scenario: you’ve just had a baby and the family’s expenses have suddenly doubled. Your wife is not holding a job at the moment, so you’re the sole breadwinner for the three of you. And then the worst thing happens – you fall ill and have to stay at home for at least two months.

In the two months that you are at home, considering that you went one month without pay and that you spent all your savings on your hospitalisation and treatment, did it occur to you that it made no sense to spend every rupee you had saved on your illness? In the days just after you had your baby, did you suppress the thought that if a sudden accident or disease struck you or your loved ones, you really had no backup payment options?

People such as yourself are ideal candidates for health insurance.

Investing for the future

Medical insurance is simply the corpus you set aside every month for future eventualities such as accidents and illnesses requiring hospitalisation and a long period of recovery. Instead of dipping into your current income or savings, this corpus helps tide over the crisis without affecting your life in any way.

Health insurance for hospitalisation relies on paying premiums in the present time so that a healthy corpus can be built for use in the future. Normally, people take medical insurance for the time that they need the policy to cover their hospital expenses when they are not working (such as in their old age) or for the time when a sudden accident necessitates their taking time off from work.

Medical insurance in India is, however, still largely in the nascent stage, with individuals opting for it only when an emergency looms on the horizon. However, the best time to take it is when you are in good physical condition – this helps the insuring company process your check up results and premium terms faster – and in good fiscal control. Normally, a higher return on the medical insurance plan will translate into a higher monthly pay-out; doing this when you’re still young and earning well will give the insuring company the confidence to process your application faster. The older you get, the more difficult it can become to take medical insurance.

However, some companies are offering health insurance even to senior citizens up to the age of 65 years, provided the premiums are being paid for a certain tenure and at a certain rate.

Health Insurance in India Helps Swine Flu Treatment

Swine Flu Myths Busted

According to a Hindustan Times report, around 600 people have died of swine flu in the first three months of 2015. And while an epidemic like situation looms large, misleading myths are compounding fears and causing greater problems. Health insurance in India has suddenly become a valuable commodity, with more and more people considering a purchase, triggered by the fear of possible hospitalization. However, even before you can consider health insurance policies, it is important to debunk a few myths concerning the disease.

Swine Flu: Myths Debunked

• Swine Flu can be contracted by eating pork: Swine flu has nothing do with eating pork can and it can in no way be the source of infection. The disease is spread through infected droplets expelled in the air by sneezing or wheezing. If you come in direct contact with these droplets, you are likely to get infected. Affected people are contagious from the first to the seventh day after showing symptoms and they need to be quarantined.

• There is no cure for Swine Flu: This is possibly the biggest myth that needs to be countered. Oseltamivir is a common drug that is sold under the brand name of Tamiflu and needs to be administered on time for effective treatment. In case symptoms persist or the patient experiences difficulty in breathing, hospitalization is warranted immediately. Having health insurance in India would be of great help in getting treated at a well equipped private hospital with an isolated ward for Swine Flu patients.

• The Swine Flu Virus has Mutated: This is not true, although some dailies carried news concerning the same. India’s premier labs like National Institute of Virology in Pune and National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi have carried out tests to show that there has been no mutation. The virus that is wreaking havoc this year is identical to the one that affected almost a thousand people last year.

• Swine Flu Attacks once in a Lifetime: This is not true. The virus can infect and re-infect you any number of times if you are exposed to infection. This is why workers who are in constant touch with patients are considered for vaccination. The vaccine remains active for one year. However, you must ask your doctor before getting vaccinated.

• I must panic if I get Swine Flu: There is absolutely no reason to panic. All you need to do is know the symptoms and seek prompt treatment. And if you have health insurance in India, the cost of hospitalization should not worry you either. Panicking will hardly help the situation.

It is also important to undertake preventive measures like using alcohol based sanitizers and keeping away from public places.