Health Insurance

 While we are young, we eat all the junk foods as it is tasty and full of high sodium by way of salt and high fat by way of oil.

While some do exercise and eat moderately, for most of us it becomes difficult to burn off the excesses and over a period of time it leads to an unhealthy body.

Most of us are covered by medical insurance by the company when young (at least partly), but once a serious issue comes it can lead to a financial disaster.

As a prudent practice, it is always wiser to have a medical insurance apart from the Company provided to a) build a history of no claims and b) to gain confidence of the insurance company that you are taking care of health and easier to cover up pre existing as well as insurance above 60 years which are difficult to come by.

So, what are the medical insurance policies key things to be kept in mind

First, is one should take a Base policy. This can be, say, (in year 2023) INR 10 lakhs

Second one should take a TOP UP or SUPER TOP UP policy of , say,  INR 90 lakhs.

The second one is to cover any unforseen exigencies and is generally much cheaper than 1st one.

Other key points to note when taking Medical Insurance

a) Buy a Comprehensive Medical policy

b) ENSURE No Room Limit (This is critical as your claim is based on that)

c) No Sub limit on various disease (The ins. cpy puts a max on certain claims like diabetes etc.

d) Unlimited No of restore (This is to ensure if you, by chance, get hospitalized again to cover it)

e) MOST CRITICAL Life long renew-ability (Some ins. companies after 70 years do not renew the policy and you could be stuck) 

f) Maximum 2 years for pre-existing disease (DISCLOSE ALL YOUR DISEASE FULLY-EVEN IF AGENT SAYS NO. One of the reason claim gets rejected)

g) Buy the policy at the earliest ( 30 years to 50 years maximum). The older you get fresh policy comes at a higher cost

h) Senior Citizen policy is after 60 years.

Cost for Husband Wife less than 65 is around 30-50K /year

Cost for Husband Wife > 65 is around 50 K plus

For family (till kid is 18 years) buy a floater policy

Contact ditto - a company that helps with insurance without commissions.

As Rajaji said to R.Venkatraman, ex president when he went for condolences of one of the son in law, that it  was not a great thing to live a great age, "One has to bear the sorrows of the next generation".