Keep on healthy, Keep on wealthy

The age of touting mutual funds is over and the age of selling fear has started. Fright for your life, fear for your health, fear for your loved ones. The excitement to say no to the pesky neighbourhood insurance sales guy is strong within all of us. But before actually banishing him from your life, just stop for a moment and do a quick 'health check'.

Health costs have been rising insidiously in double digits, year on year, for the last few years. Many of us are still impractical when it comes to the costs of a longish stay in a hospital.


More importantly, costs can be far higher once the hospital part is done with. It's the post surgery care that often eats large holes into our finances. This is rarely covered by the traditional Mediclaim Policy, which mostly covers hospitalization.

Previously, our choices were limited--there was mediclaim or mediclaim. In more recent years, a few more options have come up. Life Insurance Companies have been offering riders that cover some critical illnesses. In the last year or so, insurance companies, both government and private, are offering individual health policies worth considering. These don’t eliminate the need for the traditional mediclaim, but help you top up and catch up with the rising costs.

For example, non-hospital expenses can be covered by the 'critical illness cover' which must be bought alone. Similarly, say you are having a waterfall or some other surgery that doesn't require you to be in hospital; 'surgical cover' is an add-on where you get a fixed benefit regardless of the bill amount.

As always, when there are more choices, it's a bit of a land mine to navigate when you want to estimate whether to top up your health cover and if so with what, and how much. The sweat is in the nitty gritty, which diseases are covered, whether to take a Mediclaim family policy or a floater.

But once its done, at least you can heave a sigh of assistance that you won’t get wiped out financially if you fall ill. The table below can help start the wheels turning.

More Information about Health Insurance