Health Insurance Cover should be raised: FICCI

With More and more poor people in the country getting into the debt trap due to medical expenses, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Sunday said that steps need to be taken  to increase the health insurance awareness and penetration. Taking proper and appropriate health insurance policy is the least most priority of the Indians and they simply look it as a waste of money.

At present health insurance overs only 15% of the population out of which the major chunk comes from the group health policies.

Also read : Family Health Insurance Benefits

For your Healthy financial future

It is almost a cliché to say medical costs have rocketed over the years. We all tend to spend a lot of time and energy to save money for the future to fulfil our various goals like children’s education, retirement, home purchase and others. We generally don’t give as much thought to medical exigencies as required.

Considering, if one does not have a proper medical cover, expenses on medical emergencies can drain out his savings and even put a person in debt. This means your entire future goals can get compromised by not having a proper medical cover. Medical emergencies don’t announce themselves in advance before striking. Therefore, the only thing to do is to be prepared.

Also read : Don’t bank on your employer’s Health Cover

For this, you must start by assessing how much cover would be required and look at the probability of covering most events. A Rs 5 lakh cover for an adult should cover 85 – 90 per cent of medical situations. The right approach would be to transfer risk by taking an appropriate medical insurance cover and being prepared to spend if expenses overshoot the same.  A normal medical insurance policy covers hospitalisation and also includes an exhaustive list of day care procedures. They also cover domiciliary hospitalisation and pre- and post hospitalisation medical expenses. In some cases even hospital daily cash and health check-up expense reimbursement may be included. These days most policies allow cashless settlement of all the claims.

Points to be taken in considerations:

• Prior to buying medical insurance, start by assessing the cover needed and look at the probability of covering most ailments
• Build a corpus to foot expenses if medical cover falls short
• Choose a medical cover based on premium outgo, claim settlement record of the insurer and policy benefits
• Riders such as critical illness cover, hospital cash and accident covers provide additional benefits

Premium alone cannot be the sole consideration for choosing the policy. Claim settlement is of paramount importance. If your insurer of choice has a history of processing claims fast and the policy benefits, too, are good, this insurer’s policy should definitely make it to your policy shortlist.

There are people who prefer floaters, which are comparatively cheaper. The benefits are similar, but there is one umbrella cover for the entire family. For a smaller premium, one will have to assume higher risks.

Many who are employed enjoy cover from their employers. This would be a group insurance cover, that generally tends to be more beneficial than a general medical insurance policy.  The premium in a group medical insurance policy are also lower as compared to normal policies.

There is one major downside to it though this cover ceases when one leaves employment. Today, when people are mobile and change jobs frequently, this can become a problem. When a person is in transition from one job to another, there may not be any cover at all. This is a pitfall of depending on a group medical cover.

Also, the next employer may or may not have a medical cover as comprehensive. Hence, it is always a good idea to have a separate medical cover, even if you already have one. The separate cover can be at an appropriately lower level.

Also read : Other benefits of Mediclaim

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Family Health Insurance Benefits

• Individual Health Insurance covering the entire family is called a “Family Floater Plan”
• Family floater plans usually costs less if compared to a family having individual life insurance plans for each and every member of the family
• There are not any per specific illness limit or limitation
• The whole family gain the benefit; the floater plan gives a combined cover at a low cost
• Before Buying, always check your household’s current and projected health care needs
• Always compare. Can do on online insurance aggregator sites.
• Once you have determined what type of coverage you need, search for the good Advisor who can help your family during the time of crises
• Always read the fine print, check for hidden costs
• Check the network hospitals. Try for nearest included hospital located
• Always buy floater policy that goes with guaranteed renewable coverage
• Avail tax benefits under section 80D of the income tax act

Also read : Don’t bank on your employer’s Health Cover

Also read : Other benefits of Mediclaim

Mr Pranab Mukherjee withdraws proposal to levy service tax on healthcare

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today announced withdrawal of the proposed 5% service tax on air-conditioned hospitals with more than 25 beds and on diagnostic services.

The announcement was greeted with loud thumping of desks by members as the Minister hoped that it will no more be called misery tax.

During the general discussion on the Budget last week, almost all political parties wanted the Finance Minister to withdraw the healthcare service tax proposal, which was dubbed as "misery tax".

 

Difference between Critical illness insurance and Mediclaim

Insurance as we all know is a way by which the insurance company bears the financial losses be it health, life, theft or any other financial loss.

With changing times the lifestyles of individuals have changed to a larger extent and this most of the times contributes to the various illnesses that we come across today. In such a scenario planning and investing in a health insurance plan is the wisest move.

Critical illness refers to the diseases which are mostly non-curable or require high funds to be cured. Regular health insurance is ofcourse related to petty health problems which are moreover not critical.

Also read : Don’t bank on your employer’s Health Cover

To differentiate we can say that Critical illness insurance insures diseases like cancer, kidney failure, paralysis, stroke, first heart attack, major organ transplant etc. while regular health insurance over the cost from the time the person is hospitalized till he is discharged.

It includes the charges incurred for various tests done and medication as well. For critical illness the amount is paid immediately after the disease is diagnosed while in regular health insurance it’s only on the hospitalization of the insured.

Also read : Other benefits of Mediclaim

Critical illness will cover the whole loss of the disease but regular health insurance may not bear the whole losses incurred. In Critical illness the insured gets the amount in lump sum but the same is not applicable for a regular health insurance.

Thus, as stated above a critical and a regular insurance varies a lot though they seem to be very similar. There are also other things like the premium rates which also differ when the two are considered.

It’s always better to consult your Insurance Advisor and get the best policy made so as to get the right amount at the time of need.

Click for Mediclaim Tariff and Forms

 

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Don’t bank on your employer’s health cover alone

It is always good to have a health insurance policy provided by your employer. Anyway it doesn’t cost you anything, and may also cover your family members, apart from giving you protection from health risks.

However, even if you are covered under group health insurance, it makes sense to have a personal health insurance policy. For banking only on your employer’s group health insurance may cost you dearly, particularly in the times of crisis.

It is no longer a secret that insurers across the globe are pulling out of contracts with a growing number of organisations. Recently, for instance, health insurance cover to the US-based employees  of Satyam Computer Services was withdrawn as the company had allegedly defaulted in paying the premium to the tune of over $4 million. Something similar may happen with the staff of other companies also if their organisations fail to pay the premium in time.

Click here for Family Floater Mediclaim Premiums

Among other probabilities, a company may become bankrupt or one’s policy may get cancelled by the insurer.

There are also the chances of a group insurance cover becoming invalid in case the insurer itself becomes bankrupt or an employee gets terminated as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

Normally also, the cover provided by a company may become invalid when there are changes in the employment contract or if terminated by the employer. The same thing can happen if the employee resigns or retires.

Thankfully, personal health insurance policies don’t suffer from such drawbacks. On the contrary, they have some added benefits over group policies. 

Similarly, if you are in-between jobs or if you retire, there is a possibility that you and your loved ones could be stranded in case of a medical contingency. Or your current employer might be covering your family, excluding your dependent parents.

However, your personal health insurance gives you the freedom to choose the sum insured as per your requirement and  also income tax benefits under section 80D. While no claims by an insured also gives a cumulative bonus, i.e., automatic increase in the sum insured without paying any extra money for that.

It is, therefore always advisable to have a personal health insurance policy even though the employer may be providing group health insurance. 

This is, however, not to suggest that group health insurance is useless. On the contrary, the group cover may have its own benefits.