Today life is unexpected and you are never sure of what can happen? Well you never can plan for tomorrow but their are certain things which can help in easing the unexpected sometime.
I am talking here about health Insurance.
What is health insurance?
Health insurance insures you from medical expenses in the unforeseen cases of illness. In the way car insurance is must for car, health insurance is must for every individual.
I am fit so I guess there is no need of health insurance.
Really!
In the initial years of your life when you are physically fit, health insurance will cover in non-health cases like accident and in the later years it will cover in all health cases as well. So depending on your health is not right as you never no of what uncertainty may come in tomorrow.
Why should you take health insurance at the earliest?
As with general insurance, health insurance gets costlier with your age. For a 5 lakh cover a 38 year age person will have to pay approximately double premium as compared to a 18 year age. So if you take an insurance at 18, you will lock the lower premium for entire life and also the safety cover as well.
My Company provides me health insurance, so I don’t need a separate one
Yes if you plan and are able to work with a single company till you die. Because if you do not then it will really difficult to get a health insurance after your retirement.
Also, while changing jobs, you are uncovered for the period of break between jobs, so it is advisable to take a separate insurance together with the company insurance.
Types of health insurance coverage
Self: In self policy, you can take a cover for safeguarding against your illness. So for-ex. if you have taken a self cover of Rs. 1,00,000 then you can get up to Rs. 1,00,000 for your hospital expenses.
Family Floater: In family floater, you can take cover for your family (you, your spouse and your kids). So for-ex. if you have taken a family floater cover of Rs. 1,00,000 then you can get up to Rs. 1,00,000 for any of covered family member’s hospital expenses. Family floater is beneficial as the total cover can be used for any of the family members
Tax Benefit on Health Insurance : Bonus
Section 80 D of income tax provides for deduction of premium paid for medical insurance from total taxable income. This deduction is over and above 1,00,000 limit of section 80 C of income tax. This is limited up to Rs. 15,000 per year and up to Rs. 20,000 for senior citizens.
So effective cost of health insurance comes down due to tax benefit.
How much cover should you take?
Today cost of medical treatment is going beyond the roof and certain illness and surgeries are really expensive. On the minimum side self policy should be taken at least between 2 to 3 lakhs and a family floater between 5 to 10 lakhs. Health insurance cover can be increased at a later stage in life when risk increases but in that case you will have to take a fresh policy and existing policy can not be changed.
There are so many companies offering Health Insurance, which one is best?
There is no best company, however you can take claim settlement ratio in mind before finalizing your health insurer. One thing you should remember is go for stable names only, there may be a few very new companies offering insurance at very cheap rates, but that may come with certain restrictions.
Below is the claim settlement ratio data for health insurer companies:
