The last two years have made the entire world realize how unpredictable life is and how a medical crisis can leave us and our family in a financially distressed situation. With the rising medical and health expenses, people have now started to understand the importance of health insurance - how it can help cover the financial risk in case you or anyone in your family gets hospitalised. 

Who should buy health insurance?

Today, people from every age group have the risk of getting diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. Diseases and conditions which have been prevalent among the older generation like diabetes, cancer, heart conditions, hypertension, obesity, respiratory diseases are now seen in younger people too. This is because modern-day lifestyle has changed drastically and factors such as stress, unhealthy eating habits, smoking, drinking, gadget addiction, lack of exercise, etc. have contributed to this change. 

Thus, everyone has a risk of contracting a disease or getting injured in an accident, and especially if you have an adverse medical history in your family, you have a higher-than-usual chance of getting sick, and hence, having a health insurance policy becomes all the more important.

Why is buying health insurance NOW important?

Here are some reasons why you should get health insurance right away if you haven’t already.

1- Higher prevalence of critical illnesses

People often depend on their savings and/or a healthcare fund instead of investing in health insurance. But, what they don’t realise is a health care fund may not be sufficient if they get diagnosed with a serious illness or meet with an accident. The cost of hospitalisation & follow-up treatment in case of critical illnesses could be so high that it leaves families financially exhausted. 

It is important to remember that an emergency fund/savings can only be used once (they are a depleting resource and once exhausted don’t replenish). However, health insurance cover or sum insured is replenished in full every year at renewal. Hence, a health insurance policy becomes a must - it will help cover such high hospitalisation expenses. 

2- Rising healthcare costs

Due to the advancement in medical science, it has now become possible to treat diseases that were once incurable. But the cost of such treatments is so high that it is very difficult to afford them. Plus, medical costs are rising at an alarming rate and if you get diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, health insurance is the only thing that will help your family remain financially protected.

3- You won’t get it later as you grow older/ get a disease

Health insurance works like an emergency loan. If you get sick when you grow older and desperately want a health insurance policy, there are chances you might not get it at that time. Even if you do, there might be a lot of restrictions and the premiums might be very high. Plus, if you have an illness or any kind of lifestyle disease, it could become almost impossible to get a policy. 

So, purchasing a health insurance policy at a young age when you think, you don’t need it, is what we recommend.

4- Higher life expectancy

With advancements in medical science, the average life expectancy world over is higher. This implies greater healthcare expenses. Thus, one would need a larger corpus of money as well as a good health insurance cover to sustain the old age when one has no active income. 

Who can skip buying health insurance?

You can skip buying a health insurance policy if - 

 1- You have plenty of wealth 

You can skip investing in health insurance if you are an ultra HNI (High Net Worth Individual) or have built a substantial health care fund - meaning you have created enough wealth that will last a lifetime. You won’t need to buy health insurance as this wealth that you’ve accumulated will help cover all future healthcare expenditures of you and your family.

2- You find health insurance too expensive

A lot of people think about buying health insurance at an older age. For ages above 45 yrs, the insurers charge a significantly higher premium for health insurance. To top it off, if you have a medical history or a pre-existing disease, the insurance premiums may become unaffordable. If you can’t afford to pay such expensive premiums, you will have to unwillingly skip buying health insurance. 

However, it is important that you build some form of financial protection and have enough money kept aside for your medical bills. You can do so by building a healthcare fund so that you accumulate enough money for all your future medical expenses. In addition, you should also check a super top-up in case the premiums for a base health insurance become unaffordable. Super top-ups combined with a healthcare fund could give you the required financial cushion to live comfortably. 

3- You have a job that will provide you lifelong healthcare 

There are many jobs, especially the Central Services like Defence, Administrative Services, etc that provide complete health care including hospital care free of cost at premier hospitals throughout one’s life (even beyond retirement). If you have one such job, you can skip buying health insurance. 

Summing up! 

There is always a risk of getting diagnosed with a serious illness or meeting with an accident and getting hospitalised. The cost of treatment and other medical expenses incurred in such situations would be so high that it will leave you and your family financially exhausted. Hence, buying a health insurance policy for yourself and your family is very necessary. You can skip buying health insurance if you’ve accumulated enough wealth that you think will take care of your and your family’s future healthcare expenses or you are lucky to be in a job that provides lifelong healthcare free of cost or at subsidized rates. 

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