Thursday, 12 June 2014

Why You need Health Insurance

Consider this : 

In Bengaluru, consultant architect Francis Jackson had to rush to the hospital in January this year as he complained of shooting pain in the abdomen. Sure enough, it was diagnosed as a kidney stone and Francis had to undergo surgery for the same.
The cost of the procedure and stay at hospital was Rs 75,000.

Thankfully he didn’t have to shell out a single rupee, as he was covered under a Health Insurance plan with a limit of up to 3 lacs.

What is Health or Medical Insurance ?
The term health insurance is generally used to describe a form of insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care.

To understand it in simple words, you pay some amount of premium every year to a company, and if some thing happens to you, like an accident or if you have to undergo a surgery, the company will reimburse/pay for it, provided the illness is covered under the Health Insurance Plan.


Why do I need a Health Insurance ?
This is the most common thing you can hear from a person who wants to avoid Health Insurance, but its one of the most important part of any financial portfolio or plan. People concentrate on the fact that, what if nothing happens to them, but they fail to imagine the situation when some thing can actually happen.

The human body is a complex thing, and no one knows what can happen in future, even things like accident is not in your hand , you can take try to avoid it, but what about others, what if some car hits you? What if accidentally you fall from some place? It can happen and it does happen, and when you have to pay a hefty bill for the treatment, you will soon realise that its a good idea to get covered by paying a small premium every year, rather than spending your hard earned savings.

Why is Health Insurance more important now as compared to earlier years
Yes , Health care costs have increased many fold in last 20-30 yrs. Also now, more and more young people are complaining of heart and other diseases which were seen in older people earlier. Because of high stress jobs, poor eating habits and other similar problems, rise in the number of cars, pollution etc, the probability of getting some illness or meeting with an accident has increased substantially compared to earlier days.

What can you do..

  • Get a good coverage for diseases and surgeries.
  • You have to pay the premium annually for which you can plan ahead, set up a Recurring Deposit A/c or start an SIP in a Liquid fund to set aside money for your annual premium.
  • You get tax deduction under section 80D up to Rs 15,000(subject to IT Rules)
  • You can also go for group insurance(family floater), its ideal for a family with spouse, parents, kids … With group Insurance every one is covered and you pay less premium , also its more advantageous because there are many things which are covered in group insurance and not single person health insurance.
  • Do some online research and choose the product.


Ninad Kamat
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERCM

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