Financial planners recommend buying a health insurance cover of Rs 5-10 lakh or more. Get your health insurance as early as possible while you are still young to enjoy lower premium cost even when you grow old.
Healthcare and medical expenses have become very expensive. In the event of a family member getting ill, you have to spend a large sum in hospital bills. Medical expenses increase with progressing age. In old age, one has to spend a significant portion of the living cost on regular healthcare expenses that arise due to old age. At the existing rate of inflation and rising medical expenses, one cannot ignore health insurance for financial and physical well being of the family.
Health insurance is a must. So how much health insurance cover should one buy? Financial planners recommend buying a health insurance cover of Rs 5-10 lakh or more. The exact amount will depend on factors such as family medical history, number of family members or dependents, place of living, etc.
The cost of health insurance policies increase with the age of insured. A young person will have to pay less premium than an old person for the same amount of insurance cover. Also, the premium for new health insurance is higher at older age when compared with the premium cost for a health insurance cover taken years back. Also, the health insurance cover increases (or, health insurance premium goes down) with every year of insurance when no medial insurance claim was made for a policy.
Family Medical History: If there is a family history for certain disease that can be inherited, make sure to factor in the cost of treatment for those diseases. In case your family has a history for cancer, get a health insurance cover with cancer insurance rider/add-on.
Location: Healthcare costs varies from city to city. If you live in a small town, your bill in event of hospitalization will be lower than had it been in a metro like Delhi or Mumbai. Make yourself aware of healthcare costs in your place of living to arrive at the right amount for your health insurance cover.
Family Members & Dependants: Your health insurance policy amount should depend on the number of family members. The bigger the family, the higher the health insurance cover recommended. If possible, get health insurance policies/riders for individual members.