Medical costs have escalated by a large extent in the last
decade alone owing to rapidly increasing life style among all classes and it
will surely keep on increasing. General medical inflation rate in Asia pacific
is 10% and in India it is around 12-13% in the last 3 years whereas the
inflation has also stayed around 10% in the same time period. Reality is even
more and these are official records done by major insurance companies based on
their claims.Now you can understand the price increase easily. Lifestyle
increase should not come at the cost of health as health is the only wealth for
everybody and to their family. Give greater importance to healthy eating for
few days in a week or have daily walking introduced in your daily life. In most
of the companies nowadays health insurance is provided automatically once an
employee gets introduced into their company, so this topic is for them also.
Medical costs;
Cost of new drugs is rapidly increasing and if you want to
get treated in a better way, you need to have more money or you should have
proper health insurance which provides 100% cover. A normal fever with cold
itself can make a bigger hole in your monthly expenditure. In this context if
you get any other disease which requires surgery will make you to spend at
least a lakh and other medicine cost thereafter for a certain period.
Doctor’s fees, frequent lab tests, surgery fees, room rent
has been increased every year by the bigger organization to work in a
profitable mode.
High BP,
High Cholesterol,
Obesity,
Physical inactivity,
Smoking,
Bad nutrition
All the above factors are leading to adverse effect on one’s
health. So if you doubt that you may fall into any of these categories, get
insured right away for higher sum assured.
Having base cover, should I go for top up?
Many of the working employees may get a cover in their
company but read through the policy document on things which all is getting
covered and is there any clause in claim processing. Most of the group
insurance policies will be offered with co-pay facility only and the sum
insured will be less around 5-7 lakhs only which may not be adequate. Also if
you are one among the frequent job hoppers it is best advisable to get a
maximum cover outside your company as most of the companies have a clause to
cover pre existing disease only after 4 years.
Even if you are not getting a separate cover, go for a top
up of at least 15-20 lakh and it is a must considering the cost of curing
cancer, cardio vascular disease etc.
There are many instances where the person who had taken
insurance just one year before had utilized it for his\her treatment of cancer
which would have not been possible without it. India unlike western countries
have not provided sufficient cover be it health or life and TN has been special
in providing health cover for free who ever had got enrolled under TN
Government scheme. There has been huge push done to central government to bring
reforms to health sector, hope we get it by this year.
