Why Should Mr. Srinivasan opts for a Health Insurance Policy?

Source: http://cdn.tinybuddha.comLast month, he incurred heavy medical expenses on his father’s medical treatment who was hospitalised due to cardiac arrest. The total medical bills came around Rs 4 lakhs, and for that, Rajan had to dip into his saving funds.

This sudden medical emergency made Rajan think, “Is there any way to deal with such medical expenses?”

Diseases like diabetes,high blood pressure, etc.;are prevalent in his family with no hardcore solution. Moreover, his senior citizen parents require frequent medical care. With limited savings, rising medical costs and many other responsibilities (children’s studies and marriage, home loan EMIs,etc.), he was worried about what would he do if a medical emergency strikes again? After all, diseases never come with pre-announcement!

He immediately called his other friendAmit, who recently faced the same situation—unexpected medical crisis. His friend advised him to avail a suitable family health insurance policy.Their conversation went on as follows:

      1. Will my parents be included in the family health insurance plan?

Yes! Most insurers today offer family floater health insurance schemes in which all members, including parents, can be included. But, the premium will depend on the age of the eldest person. Seeing the age of your parents, you can go for senior citizen health insurance policies which will cover your parents in case of any medical emergency. Such policies come with a lifetime renewability feature and low waiting period for pre-existing ailments. So, choose your options wisely. You can either avail a single plan covering all, including parents or two separate ones; one for parents and the other for spouse and children.

      2. Apart from covering medical/hospitalisation expenses, are there any perks associated with the family floater plan?

Apart from medical and hospitalisation expenses of family members included in the cover, the insurer also offers the benefit of cashless hospitalisation. This means that there is a network of reputed hospitalsin which a policyholder can get admitted and avail medical treatment without paying any money. Mediclaim policies enable you to avail good medical treatmentwhich you might not have been able to afford through personal expenses. In addition to this, there are benefits like emergency ambulance cover, medical check-up, in-patient AYUSH coverage, etc.; which you can avail along with your mediclaim policies.

      3. What about the things like angiography and critical illnesses which have high treatment costs?

For such diseases, you can avail an individualcritical illness insurance policy. It will cover the treatment of critical illnesses like cancer, heart attacks, kidney failure, etc. If, God forbid, you are diagnosed with a critical ailment, in addition to medical expenses, you may also suffer from loss of income. However, if you will have a critical illness insurance policy, the insurer will make a lumpsum payment which you can use for varied purposes, like medical expenses, recuperation aid, loan EMIs, etc.

      4. What if health insurance coverage gets exhausted in a policy tenure?

Multiple claims can arise in a policy tenure and exhaust your health cover. Though some insurers automatically reinstate the sum insured, you can’t use the reset amount for injury or illness for which a claim has already been paid to you. Therefore, you should go for an extra ‘security’ in the form of super top-up policies. These policies offer coverage once the threshold or deductible limit of the mediclaim policy is crossed. The cost of medical treatment has reached a new height,and therefore, if you have a super top-up policy, the insurer will cover your hospitalisation bills when they have crossed the deductible limit. Further, super top-up plans are available with both individual and family floater policies. Also, you don’t need to buy it from the same insurer from whom you purchased your mediclaim policy.  

After getting satisfactory response, Mr. Srinivasan went ahead and bought a health insurance policy.

As said by Dave Ramsey, “Saving money isn’t about being able to buy bigger and better things. It’s about being prepared to take care of your family”. When you have a health insurance policy, you can make sure your family is in safe hands!