Why get health insurance?

Health or medical insurance is mandatory and must cover your whole family. Get one made, even if your employer provides you with a family cover. This will ensure you aren’t vulnerable in times of job change, relocation, etc.

Moreover, you’ll cease to have health insurance benefits from your employers once you retire. At that time, when you are about 58 or 60 years old, you will find it extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive to obtain fresh health insurance. However, at that time, if you can show a long track record of paying premiums regularly on your ‘private’ health policy, you may not have any difficulty in renewing and even increasing your health cover.

If you need to make a medical insurance claim when employed, ensure the claim is made against your company insurance cover.

Family floater insurance policy

For your private insurance, we suggest you get a family floater health insurance policy in India. How does it differ from an individual health cover? Here’s an example to help you understand.

Let us assume you have individual health covers of Rs 1 lakh each for your self, your wife and your child. One of you has a medical problem and the treatment costs Rs 3 lakhs. If you make a claim, you could be reimbursed for a maximum of Rs 1 lakh, as that’s the cover amount for each individual.

With a family floater policy, any of you can utilise the entire cover of Rs 3 lakhs. This flexibility will support you better. Floaters are available from most banks in India and generally cover a total of four members in a family.

Get such an insurance cover for your self, your spouse and children. Renew it every year, hiking the cover for every block of five years or so. Premiums are reasonable.

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