
In today's world , it is given that health insurance is a necessity. The high impact of pollution, work-relates stress, odd and long working hours , indifferent food habits , sedentary lifestyle and the commute to and from office add to the health hazards. Is there a way out in case you are stuck with some illness? Yes, a properly planned health insurance scheme can take care of it. Here is a ten step process for well-planned health insurance management.
10-point check list
1. Based on your family history and your work style, plan for the highest expense due to medical emergency.It is ok to be paranoid when doing this estimation.
2. Check the cover available with your company's health plan; check for the amount ; check for the diseases covered and finally check for the emergency facilities covered.
3.Bridge the gap between your estimation in step 1 and the cover in your company in step 2.Some companies may not have health insurance. Some others may even cover pregnancy and child birth (which is not normally covered by insurance companies)
4.Look for General Insurance company to fill the gap with their products. Consider the health insurance premiums as necessary expenses.They are not investments.One good thing is that the Government also gives us Income Tax benefits under section 80D for all health insurance premiums.The premiums generally change on a yearly basis increasing with age.
5.Take another health insurance from Life insurance companies for critical Illness only.There are several products in the market. For any Life Insurance based health plan- choose the longest term possible and take the plan as early in your life as possible.Here the premiums are fixed throughout the term and is dependent on the ae at entry.
we can steps the remaining 5 steps in my next posts.to be continued....