Brad Wilkerson
Health insurance is the most sought after insurance product after the coronavirus pandemic in India. The demand for health insurance has risen considerably in the past 2 years due to Corona. The hospitalization costs for Corona treatment has made it realize to many people the value of a health insurance policy.
- Healthcare:- India is one of the few countries where the health care costs are low when compared to the other developing and developed countries. India even has public hospitals which provide almost 70% of the treatment for all illnesses and diseases. But still the healthcare costs are on the rise due to medical inflation in India which hovers around 7-8% every year. A simple surgery can set you back by your yearly savings as the average cost of any surgery in a good hospital would be Rs.4-5 Lakhs inclusive of all the expenses. To counter this a person should save almost 70% of his yearly income to be used in case of hospitalization without a health insurance policy. It would be very difficult for people to save 60-7-% of their salary for future medical purposes and this is the reason health insurance policies exist.
- Tax exemption:- The government of India has encouraged people to take health insurance policies by providing income tax exemption for the premium paid towards health insurance. The premium paid towards health insurance policies are exempt for the income tax under the section 80D. The maximum amount of exemption one can claim under the section 80D of income tax would be Rs.1 Lakh including the amount spent on preventive health check-ups for self and family members.
- Protection from unexpected expenses:- Illnesses and diseases would not announce their arrival which means there is a clear uncertainty of falling sick. This uncertainty leads to unexpected expenses. Unless and until there is a clear allocation of funds by the customer for these unexpected funds it would be difficult for the customer to cope up with these expenses. It would be possible only if the customer has a health insurance policy which can cover these unexpected expenses without which the customer would be forced to fall into debt traps at a higher rate of interest.
- Financial Assistance:- Health insurance policy can be of good financial assistance in case of an emergency. The group health insurance policy provided by employer would help you in case of emergencies by providing financial assistance. The financial assistance provided by the group health insurance policy would not exceed the sum insured mentioned under the policy. The maximum liability in a health insurance policy would be the sum insured under the policy.
- Family floater:- The other reason why having a health insurance policy is good for you is the sum insured under the policy could be utilized by all the members of the policy. For example in a group health insurance policy with floater sum insured option all the family members under the policy can utilize the sum insured without any capping on a per person basis.
