Should I take Health Insurance - 2?

                                        

We had seen the need for health insurance in our last article; in this article we will see the benefits of getting this insurance and how careful we should while choosing this one. The main and important benefit is to get your savings to be protected from this medical emergency. We all work hard to earn and the hard earned money is for near and dear ones. If any medical emergency occurs all attention will be to save ourselves and the dear ones rather than keeping the money in our bank account. This can occur to anybody at any time and the best way is to keep ourselves guarded with Health Insurance.

In most of the offices they provide group insurance policy, but it is advisable to have a personalized health insurance policy to have continuity and to get a comprehensive coverage. Group policy may not cover all the diseases and there may be a co-payment clause in which you will be forced to share the fees with the hospital. Another important point to note is due to globalization or due to urge to earn more, many of us are shifting companies often and this may result in discontinuity of health insurance policy because during treatment if it is classified as pre existing disease new company may not entertain to reimburse or provide cashless facility.

Benefits of health insurance

• Most of the insurance companies offer 24 hour day care treatment also which will be of great help.
• Ambulance cover is provided nowadays
• Second opinion can be sought if we have doubt with the first medical checkup as it may help in unwanted spending.
• Pre natal and post natal hospitalization cover is provided.
• Room rent, doctor fees, surgery fees, medical bills etc will be covered with this single policy.
• In some of the companies free medical checkup is allowed once in a year as add on benefit.
• A two year policy will have a reduced premium and protect you from increase in price of premium due to inflation.

Even day care treatments are accepted in many of the policies based on doctor’s advice as many of the laser surgery are getting completed within hours and people are asked to leave hospital immediately.

Health insurance offered by

Health insurance is part of Life Insurance. In most of the corporate companies, this is being offered as group policy, where there will be a cap limit to any of the ailments or else there will be copayment rule. In copayment person has to share part of his medical payments by himself and the rest will be borne by the insurance company. In India health insurance is being offered by Religare, Apollo munich, ICICI prudential, Max Bupa etc.

Exclusions and things to check:

The most important thing to check is the waiting period, during which policy will not be covered for specific disease. Any serious pre existing disease has to be told to the insurance companies in advance to get it checked for policy coverage, because once found later the paid premium will be of no use. Diagnostic charges, alternative therapies, abortion, additional supplements, specific ailments, resulting from war are not covered in this policy. Claim ratio of the company needs to be analyzed as this says how soon they are responding to the claims.

How much to Take?

A policy of few lakhs of no use, it is advisable to take a policy of no less than 10lakhs as any heart related ailments can make you spend a minimum of lakhs in any hospital. If you want to get treatment from a reputed hospital the bed charges, doctor fees, surgery charges, lab tests and pills will run in to some extra amount which cannot be reduced, so it is really needed to get a cover of minimum of 10 lakhs initially and slowly the cover can be increased.

A Health insurance policy can be taken in online easily and for a 25 – 35 year old the premium will be not more than 10000.

Should I take Health Insurance - 1?

      

Insurance is nothing but risk protection, in the same way health insurance is the pure protection of one’s health. It is grouped under Life insurance. It is being provided by most of the insurance companies in India. Similar to Term policy this one also pure risk protection, if you get any disease it can be used or else this policy will be of no use, let us see how this is very essential in today’s world.

Need for HealthInsurance

If we keep ourselves in good health condition, one may presume no need of this policy, but you may not know the daily risk which may result in serious injuries all of a sudden. The increase in medical inflation may not be known to you unless someone close to has been cured for any ailment. Medical inflation is very rapid and Government has not stepped in to reduce it or provide an alternate for this. It had increased and continuously increasing at a rate of 15 to 20%. Therefore it is best to keep this policy as a friend. Even a close friend may not be able to help you with the money during his difficult times, but this friend i.e health insurance will be of great help which will help you in getting out of hospital easily.

Whether you agree or not, our food habits had changed tremendously from what we have been having to what we have been offered nowadays. It is just that we have been running in fast lane from Monday to Friday and we just grab the food half heartedly in the run to office and gorge food rapidly in the half an hour gap for lunch to work again. Not to miss the dinner parties and office lunches were we show who we are in having sumptuous meal. This irregular food habits will show us the world of medicines to have in our mid thirties. Our parent had started taking the medicines from their fifties and sixties but we have been getting to the world of hypertension and diabetes right from thirties and some even in early twenties. These two are serious threats which may lead you to other medical complications easily. Are you saying you are healthy inspite of having this lifestyle, hold on as you may not how your body will behave once the breakeven point is reached?

This is not to frighten you and make you seriously ill, it is just to make you understand how serious medical complications may be if not attended on time.

Medical Inflation

This may be a new term, but you need to know as the price of doctor’s fees along with getting treatment from a reputed medical hospital has increased steeply in the last few years. When is the last time you have visited a Government hospital for any treatment and got a good treatment, am sure almost NIL. Days are gone when we have got good treatment along with pills within 50 or 100. Now a doctor fees is at a minimum of 100 and any injection along with pills for a normal fever will get you around a minimum of 300. If the fever continued for few more weeks, then bills for lab testing and day care treatment will run into some thousands.

All these are for normal or severe fever, cold etc anything which requires a surgery may get into serious trouble as it may dent your savings.

You can just have a look at the medical treatment cost of various countries in comparison with India

Look at the cost of some of the heard names like Angioplast, Heart bypass, Heart valve replacement etc itself is running into some lakhs. Do you believe that with this changed lifestyle, less money in bank account and more loans to close will you be able to manage this sudden situation?

Is it big Saver?

Yes, absolutely if someone is ready to spend for you in lakhs when you are just paying a premium of some thousands, is it not big saving in your financial life? Don’t think about the situation that you are not utilizing this service, you don’t need to utilize if you are healthy enough. You can get a free health checkup every year and make sure that you are healthy enough.

Cancer Insurance Policy - 2

                                                     

                                          [Imagesource : livemint.com]

Lifestyle changes are the main reason for cancer and the only way to combat this deadly disease is to our body better than anybody else. Any small change has to be given care if it is persistent for a long time. No need to panic as we have much better facilities for getting cured. Many were not aware until Lisa ray, Yuvaraj singh, Manisha koirala got themselves cured from cancer and back with a bang with the same vigor and proved to the world they can lead a normal life.

Cost of treatment

Most of the cancer treatment if found in the latter stages will run into lakhs which is not affordable by most of the people. Many are first generation income earners with many loans to close and cancer can cause a huge burden to their current lifestyle and it will emotionally drain your family. Get yourself insured with very less premium for a maximum coverage for cancer as this will not be covered with normal health insurance policy. Just like air this is spreading everywhere due to pollution unhealthy lifestyle, smoking, drinking etc.

Benefits of cancer insurance

è Comprehensive coverage that takes care of early and advanced stages

è Free medical screening every year for the entre duration of the policy

è Future premium waiver if advanced stage is detected

è Easy cash payouts during treatment

è Premium covered under section 80D

Geography of cancer as mentioned in India today

                                                 

Premium may be as low as 300 per month for a policy of 10 lakhs. Allocating 10 per day for protecting yourself from a dreadful disease should be necessary.

Your Money Matters – Even a healthy lifestyle and body needs proper attention, get insured and stay healthy

Cancer insurance policy

                                              

                                                                        [imagesource : insuranceroots.com]

Why this policy?

Nobody knows when and how this cancer comes to anybody, just like the dialogue of superstar of India, ‘I don’t know when and how I will come, but will definitely come when in need’, but the sad part is no one wish to get this cancer as most of them are not curable and the cost of getting cured is humongous that it may wipe out all your savings and your energy. The concept of prevention is better than cure is not applicable, as it is difficult to apply to this cancer as many miss out the symptoms of cancer and the awareness of getting checked for this is very less.

If cancer is found in the early stages it can be cured at a cost and only on certain rare occurrences if found in stage 3 or 4 it is difficult to give treatment and cure the person. The cost of treatment will also be higher in the latter stages. Basically the treatment consists of doctor visits, lab tests, Scans, Radiation treatments, drug costs, hospital stays and visits, surgery costs and home care. A recent study in United States found that cost of cancer care is large due to the cost of new drugs. Of the 12 prescribed drugs there, 11 were priced above 1million dollar for a year of treatment. Cost of chemotherapy varies with the type of cancer and it is the only alternative to reduce the re-occurrence of cancer.

History

Cancer insurance policy has emerged around 50 years ago, it was created by American heritage life insurance and Aflac for the people who have been asking coverage for this disease. Though emergence of this disease has increased considerably in the last few decades the cost of medical treatment has stayed higher due to the complex nature of this disease.

There is no definite reason for the occurrence of cancer cells in anybody’s body. During mutation of cell some cells get damaged and instead of getting dyeing they start accumulating and form the cancer tissue and they start invading other parts of the body. A person having lung cancer may also have cancer cells spreading to stomach, throat etc.  There are more than 100 different types of cancer.

Symptoms of cancer

1)      Coughing, chest pain and breathlessness

2)      Changes in bowel habits such as pain in abdomen, persistent bloating, blood on your stools etc

3)      Bleeding when you cough, vomit, during urination etc

4)      New irregular Moles

5)      Unexplained weight loss

6)      Lump in your breast

These are some of the symptoms that may cause cancer; get it checked with your family doctor before jumping into conclusions.

Family floater health insurance - 2

                                                             

Gaining popularity of having this policy would have forced you to take one such policy immediately, but have you disclosed all the details to your insurer.  You had seen the benefits of having this policy in detail in the earlier article, now you can see the ways to get proper benefits and need to provide all the information while taking this policy.

Am having company insurance, should I get another one?

Rajesh has been shifting companies frequently every two or three years, and in all the companies he has been getting sum insured for death and family floater policy for a minimum of 5 lakhs. Whenever he has been approached to take a separate family floater policy to have proper continuity he had denied saying it is extra waste of money and medical bill reimbursements will not be covered in such policy. Once during transfer to another company he has met with a minor accident he was admitted in a hospital where his existing medical insurance was not accepted due to his resignation with his earlier company. This is a very unfortunate situation and he was forced to liquidate all cash in his bank deposits to meet with the medical expenses. Suppose if he has taken a separate medical cover all this would have got covered in that medical insurance. Now he has taken a separate family floater insurance policy including his parent and in laws.

Am having company insurance, why should I get Top up?

Sam has been working with a leading software company in Bangalore and he has not moved out of the company for the last 5 years. He had got married in between and included his wife also in the same policy. Now he has got a kid which also has been included in the policy. All these years coverage has just moved from 3Lakhs to 5 Lakhs for the whole family. The whole family is having coverage of just 5 lakhs though he has been asked to get at least a Top up on existing insurance policy he was always reluctant to get another one. Suddenly during a travel they had met with an accident during which he had suffered minor injuries and his wife, kid met with injuries for which major surgery needs to be performed. He had liquidated all the cash which he has been accumulating over the years to save his family and love, after all the earnings were for them. If he had opted for a top up of another 15lakhs, it would have been a hassle free treatment with the whole coverage.

Should I get a more coverage?

Believe the health insurance agent or broker if he explains you all the required details and benefits in having his company policy. He will always say it is superior to the competitor, get the details of the other company also, compare and select the policy. Don’t buy a policy if it is just cheaper compared to others as the premium may be increased from the next year owing to revisions, so check the claim settlement, customer service when in need, benefits offered by the company in comparison to other health insurance policies.

Family floater health insurance

                                                         

                                                                                [Imagesource : maxbupa.com]

Why this Policy

Family floater health insurance, those working in corporate offices or in some of the middle level companies this is being offered were people can claim any health related medical bills from an insurance company thru their office. This has reduced the burden of sudden hospitalization and the stress of paying the money by taking loan. Considering the medical expenses which are increasing faster than the inflation rate it is the need of the hour for everyone in India. An individual policy of 10Lakhs for a 30 year old will cost you around 7-8000 and if it is been taken for all the individuals it will be a huge no-no from everyone, instead if this family opts for family floater for 2+2 it will be around 15-16000.

Is it Necessary?

Cost of a normal fever or any food poison itself is running into thousands when you go for better medical facility. If you are being admitted in a hospital for a day or two with series of medical check- ups and scans it will run into several thousand’s which will be difficult to manage for a normal middle class family. For example, Hernia operation can be around 2Lakhs if you want to get treated in the best multi-chain hospital, but the cost may force you to go for a cheaper hospital even in that hospital it may cost you more than 60-70000 on an average. As hernia has to be treated as soon as possible and it’s a big amount for a normal family living in metropolitan lifestyle, in this situation family floater can be a big boon. Though the cost of medical treatment is far less when compared to western countries it is by far difficult for a normal family in India were the average wage or salary itself is very less.

How to choose?

Sum assured has to be chosen carefully as this is going to be for the whole family and once exhausted by any member of the family it can be restored only in the next year. Higher policy of more than 10 lakhs is very much essential. Though at present you may feel it is unnecessary, consider the inflation and medical inflation. The cost of surgery and all have increased in the last 10 years, think of the future cost and choose the policy. Assess the risk of your health and the family member health, disclose before paying the premium. Premium will be higher for person with smoking habit and drinking habit.

Some of the public sector insurance company has option of providing family floater but the criteria they have is each individual have their sub limits.  You have chosen 5lakh policy and you are a family of three with yourself and your wife having a sub limit of 2lakh each and your kid is having sub limit of 1 lakh. If you get treated for some of the disease and if your limit is exhausted, your insurance company will not pay more than 2lakh. Most of the private insurers have policy value alone for the whole family and they don’t have sub limit for each individual.

If you are going to choose among 2 companies you have zeroed in, choose the number of hospital that a insurance company is having under its kitty and how fast the claim is being settled or how the process is being speeded up if the customer is being admitted in hospital and waiting for insurance approval.

Health insurance policy for senior citizens

           

[Image source : retail.starhealth.in]

India had grown a lot from 1947, from the day we had got Independence; along with that we have also seen the gradual increase in the average age of death of Indians. In 1947 it was 28, now the average age of death is around 63.The increase in medical facility for the common man had increased the average age of death. Everyone is able to afford for the medicine with the money they earn and after retirement with the pension amount.

For the non pensioners they need to make it up with the available corpus if they had built over the years or else it will be difficult to deal with any critical illness which may come at any time. Senior citizen health insurance policy will be from age 65 to 80 based on the IRDA guidelines. Normal policy covers till the age of  65.

Need for Health Insurance for senior citizens

Health Insurance is needed at very early stage and if you had missed taking it up during that time, you need for sure during your old age from 60. Hypertension and diabetes had become common across all and slowly it may show up for sure during old age with any critical illness. The reason for cancer is unknown and it is not about being healthy and protecting for all diseases. Any accident can cause you serious injuries, so it is better to act pro actively. It is always ‘prevention is better than cure’, so have the right insurance policy before onset of any disease.

How to choose

Look at the coverage period and the number of illness they are covering. Though all insurance policies may be covering all the diseases you need to carefully look at the exclusions of certain diseases with insurance agents or brochure. Certain diseases will be covered after certain lock in period only if it is pre existing and any new onset of illness will be covered immediately.

Tricky part is how much cover is essential and you can choose the maximum available. All the critical illness disease will make you to spend more than 10Lakhs and it is best to choose a minimum of 10-15Lakhs as cover. Some of the insurance offers one free check up every year which will be of great benefit to senior citizens. Based on the cover there will be co-payment for some of the diseases, in surgeon fees and room rent as well

Senior citizen policy offered by

It is offered by most of the Insurance companies in India. Bajaj Allianz, National Insurance, Max Bupa, Star health Insurance, Apollo Munich and ICICI Lombard.

Money will be of great help if you had accumulated at your young age, but what if the money is eroded just to cure your disease, protect yourself from any disease with proper health Insurance policy.

Cashless Medical facility

                                                                

                                               [image source : topnews.in]  

Cashless medical facility got popular mainly because of the government schemes say in Tamil nadu when you have government card, you can show it in hospitals for any surgery, your details will be sent to Government and on approval, and surgeries will be carried out for free. Hospitals will be claiming their amount from government separately. This facility is for who had opted for government hospital care.

Even in many of the corporate offices, employees can inform the insurance company in advance if they are going to do surgery in future date, all the medical bills will be settled by insurance company to the hospital. You can have hassle free care in the hospital.

How about others?

This facility is for everyone who had enrolled for health insurance policies with any of the insurers. All the insurance companies will be having a network of hospitals and we can get admitted in any of the hospital for any medical care. After the penetration of insurance has increased to a certain level insurance companies had started managing it thru Third Party Administrator namely TPA for any claim approval or rejection. Customer can also get admitted without informing and get it reimbursed from the insurance companies directly.

Benefits of Cashless facility

Any medical emergency can meted out with cashless health insurance policy. Any financial emergency creates a lot of stress and during medical emergency it will be difficult for the associated family members, it will be difficult to have so much liquid money all of a sudden and this cashless policy brings in peace of mind during those situations. Further it is always better to enroll for the higher sum assured as all the medical bills can be brought in during emergency. Great network of hospitals brings in sigh of relief as any nearby best hospital can be chosen.

Things to check

Is all the best hospitals are covered in the network chain of the insurance company? TPA’s of the chosen company should have the track record of immediate response of any request being sent by customer. Poor understanding between TPA’s and your chosen hospital can bring in delayed response which may delay the operation.

Choose the high Sum Assured and check the copayment, as the amount mentioned in copayment should be paid by you. Check the waiting period of your health insurance policy before going for any cashless claim in hospitals as it may get rejected. Sub limits on all your treatments including rent needs to be checked in advance to have a peaceful treatment without any worry on money to be paid.

What is health insurance Policy?

[Image source : moneycrashers.com]

Insurance is nothing but risk protection, in the same way health insurance is the pure protection of one’s health. It is grouped under Life insurance. It is being provided by most of the insurance companies in India. Similar to Term policy this one also pure risk protection, if you get any disease it can be used or else this policy will be of no use, let us see how this is very essential in today’s world.

Need for Health Insurance

If we keep ourselves in good health condition, one may presume no need of this policy, but you may not know the daily risk which may result in serious injuries all of a sudden. The increase in medical inflation may not be known to you unless someone close to has been cured for any ailment. Therefore it is best to keep this policy as a friend. Even a close friend may not be able to help you with the money during his difficult times, but this friend i.e having this policy will be of great help which will help you in getting out of hospital easily.

Benefits

Most of the insurance companies offer 24 hour day care treatment also which will be of great help. Ambulance cover, second opinion can be sought if we have doubt with the first medical checkup as it may help in unwanted spending. Pre natal and post natal hospitalization cover is provided. Room rent, doctor fees, surgery fees, medical bills etc will be covered with this single policy. In some of the companies free medical checkup is allowed once in a year as add on benefit. A two year policy will have a reduced premium and protect you from increase in price of premium due to inflation.

Offered in India by

                                                [Image source : healthinsuranceindia.org]

In most of the corporate companies, this is being offered as group policy, where there will be a cap limit to any of the ailments or else there will be co-payment rule. In co-payment person has to share part of his medical payments by himself and the rest will be borne by the insurance company. In India health insurance is being offered by Religare, Apollo munich, ICICI prudential, Max Bupa etc.

Exclusions to check:

The most important thing to check is the waiting period, during which policy will not be covered for specific disease. Any serious pre existing disease has to be told to the insurance companies in advance to get it checked for policy coverage, because once found later the paid premium will be of no use. Diagnostic charges, alternative therapies, abortion, additional supplements, specific ailments, resulting from war are not covered in this policy.

More importantly any savings or investments will be lost in curing disease itself, as life is more important than money we have, any sufficient health insurance policy will be able to protect you from sudden erosion of wealth.

Pregnancy insurance policy in India

Why Pregnancy Insurance?

Maternity insurance may gain popularity going by the number of Cesarean options being carried out in hospitals and recently a leading daily has reported that many of the hospitals are going for operations rather than curing the ailment with available alternatives. Further the raising medical bills when you opt for best medical care will make many to opt for this insurance. The ration between Cesarean and normal delivery is 65:35 and this makes the risk for the life of women who becomes pregnant

Benefits of maternity insurance

After waiting period hospitalization and day care treatment will be covered. All the maternity related expenses will be covered. Some of them cover pre and post hospitalization related medical expenses. Post hospitalization includes visit to doctor for periodic check up till it gets completely cured. Nowadays corporate provide maternity cover as add on to their health insurance policy, but the limit may not exceed 50000. It is advisable to take a private maternity cover policy to get a exclusive coverage.

What to look for

The main reason to check in maternity or pregnancy insurance is from when the coverage will start. Mostly all have waiting periods which needs to be carefully looked upon and the most important thing is already pregnant women cannot enroll for this policy. New born baby cover also needs to be checked as complications arising for new born will not be covered in regular health policy unless enrolled and approved by the medical insurance companies. Basically only 2 pregnancies will be covered under this policy and the gap between 2 children should be 24 months in most of the policies.

What is not included?

Regular medical bills are not included as part of this insurance cover. Any event that may result in abortion of fetus is not covered and above all medical expenses that we may incur during pregnancy period is also not covered. Any pre existing illness that may affect pregnancy is not covered. Treatment for fertilization and pregnancy is also not covered under this policy. All other exclusions mentioned in the policy have to be looked upon.

All the leading insurance companies in India offer maternity cover as add on benefit and also a standalone policy. Protect yourself against any risk arising out of pregnancy. It is a new life not only for the new born during pregnancy but also for the women. Life without a woman is incomplete in life and special protection is really needed and has to be provided.