5 Reasons to Consider Health Insurance If You Are Young
With the healthcare industry in India witnessing double-digit inflation, it is getting extremely expensive to treat even the common ailments. This in turn, puts forth the need for huge financial provisions to meet the emerging medical costs. Considering this, health insurance should become an indispensable part of your financial planning exercise no matter what your age.
Still, for most youngsters, taking care of health/medical expenses figure at the bottom of their financial planning list. No wonder, number one reason youngsters buy health insurance is to avail the tax benefit under section 80D.
Contrary to this, here is why you should consider buying health insurance if you are aged 25 – 35 years?
1. No one is invincible
The growing dependency on technology and sedentary lifestyle in the last few years ensure youngsters are affected by numerous health risks.
However, in general, if you are young and are not suffering from any obvious health condition, you are likely to consider yourself invulnerable to any illness or disease. Meanwhile, the reality is-
- Obesity is the storehouse of numerous diseases like hyper-tension, diabetes etc. which aren’t generally age-relative and occurs across all segments.
- Inactive lifestyle has also given rise to the early onset of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, claiming younger lives.
- Critical illnesses like cancer can affect anyone at any time.
- Anyone can fall ill due to seasonal diseases like dengue, chikungunya, Zika irrespective of age or class and hospitalization costs can fall anywhere between a few thousands to lacs.
2. Depending on employer health cover may not be enough
Most Indian companies cut corners when it comes to benefits offered under the group health insurance plans-
- Most group plans has limits/restrictions on vital elements of a health plan like co-payment, sub-limits, hospital room-rent etc. In this case, an additional top-up plan must be bought to supplement the coverage.
- A simple change in company’s group insurance policy may entail no coverage extended to spouse, children, and parents.
- Change/termination of employment or switching to part-time job will mean you risk the chance of remaining uncovered from medical insurance during the time. There is not even a guarantee of same kind of health coverage and benefits in the next company.
A corporate health plan may look attractive, it doesn’t offer a complete long-term solution. Thus, it is advisable to opt for comprehensive cover or high deductible plans for yourself to avoid medical exigencies.
3. Serve waiting-period in/before the nick of time
When you buy a new health insurance policy, it doesn't give coverage with immediate effect due to 'waiting period', which is the duration of time that must pass before some or all of the health care coverage can begin. It is only after this time-period has passed that the insurer is liable to consider any claim filed by the policyholder.
Age, pre-existing health conditions, and the nature of policy are few factors that impact the waiting period in a health plan.
As mentioned above, today youngsters are no exception when it comes to being diagnosed with a disease. It is advisable to buy health policy early and serve the waiting period while it is inactive, thereby diminishing the risk of remaining uncovered in case of hospitalization during waiting period.
In other words, if due to unfortunate circumstances, you’re already suffering from a disease or diagnosed with any listed disease in the future, by the time coverage becomes active, you might have already served the timeline.
Notably, the general waiting period post issuance of policy date is 30days. Under most health policies, pre-existing illnesses and ailment-specific waiting period varies from 1-4years.
4. HI companies (prefer to) cover individuals who are young & healthy
Health insurance cover a chance of payout occurring or risk of illness occurring in a lifetime of an individual.
- It is thus, advisable to buy health insurance plan when you’re young i.e. when you are an acceptable risk.
- At a later stage, insurer may not accept an individual as a part of their coverage due to factors like existence of a pre-existing illness or general ill-health associated with old age.
5. Use life-cycle benefits
Parenthood is an important phase in a couple’s life. At the same time, rising cost of treatment is the primary reason why to-be-parents must opt for maternity coverage, which is usually offered as a rider with the main health insurance policy. Most policies cover maternity after a waiting period of 3-6years, thus proper planning is the key.
Importantly, you need to ascertain four key points i.e. look for the waiting period applicable for claiming maternity expenses; consider the sub-limit; see if the policy covers out-patient expenses related to maternity and check specific exclusion/s (if any) related to the cover.
Later, you can add new-born baby as a member in the existing health plan.
Conclusion
While consumer expenditure on healthcare is rising in both urban and rural India, it is important to know that initial financial planning as soon as one starts earning, is vital to one’s overall well-being. The golden rules of health insurance remains, “early we buy more benefits we get”.
Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel
First Published: Sep 01 2016 | 1:52 PM IST