As I wait for the final claim amount, a tad under $1000 to be approved and credited to my account, I'm just happy that I made a wise decision of getting an excellent health insurance cover in India.
This is a topic I would have preferred not to write because most may find it boring. But, if truth be told, a lack of good health insurance plan or being under-insured is the worst thing you could probably do to yourself today!
Over these past 4 months, I've had two surgeries, 2 months of physiotherapy, several lab-tests and on-going medications, resulting in nearly $8000 in expenses. But my health insurance plan took care of almost 90% of the costs, more if this payout comes through.
My health insurance plan from Religare Health Insurance in India costs me a very reasonable $105 yearly premium at my current age of 29 years. It provides a starting health cover value of $15500 (INR, 1 million) which goes up a certain percentage annually (if there is no claims) to a total cover of $38600 (INR, 2.5 million) over 5 years (provided zero claims were made over 5 years), without an increase in the premium amount paid.
Religare's CARE II plan as they call it was the best I could get 2 years ago when I was considering purchasing a health insurance cover. I plan on increasing my base cover slightly when I am up for renewal at 31 years of age.
As you can tell a badly timed incident was mitigated easily with a good health cover!
Why Health Insurance is Important?
I've got excellent, world class medical care in my city as it's a hub for education, medical as well as engineering! I'm also lucky as I live 4 minutes from one of the best hospitals in my city with some of the best doctors in the industry.
But for many this isn't the case. Even if it is the case, the cost of medical care is so expensive. You'd think India being an 'emerging nation' would have it cheap. If I didn't have my financial planning and health insurance in order I could have gone into a financial crisis; and many people do!
We never intend or hope to fall sick or get hurt in an accident but it can happen. Having an health insurance cover protects you against these contingencies with some great benefits. Any unexpected costs are usually taken care off and you get to access good facilities and hospital care that you truly deserve!
Lack of an insurance plan can burden you and your family for years to come. It would be unwise to ignore it for long!
But is Health Insurance a Ponzi Scheme?
I find myself often asking this question.
Clearly insurance companies pocket more than they reimburse their customers. Some doctors feel that commercial insurance is one of the greatest pyramid schemes that could exist today.
This is because insurance companies across the world systematically deny legitimate claims many times.
For as many good stories there exist about my choice of insurer there are also as many negative experiences. That's pretty much the industry standard anywhere in the world.
But the question is can we survive without insurance? If you are wealthy beyond measure, perhaps then so. The common man unfortunately needs to rely on this double edged sword!
Health Insurance in the United States of America
Health insurance in the states dates back several decades. Today, as I understand patients pay monthly premiums or fees to be able to visit a doctor or hospital. US also enacted the affordable health care or Obamacare as it is known. Feels a bit complicated to me. But you can read more about the American health insurance here and yet many people are bankrupted by the HUGE costs of treatments.
I find it unfortunate that a global leader isn't able to solve the healthcare crisis with all the technological developments and infrastructure it has in place! A little more information on how US healthcare works!
US also has the obamacare and insurance laws and policies are quite confusing. If you want to learn more about Obamacare which I think the new Trump administration is planning to do away with then you can read here.
Health Insurance in Europe
Europe does things a little differently but it is similar to the UK. Atleast for some of the countries such as France, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. Many nations have a social welfare hospital which takes care of people and these apparently take good care of people. It's a vast subject and you can read more here!
Health Insurance in India
The health insurance industry was kicked off in India in the mid-1980s. It has become quite popular in the last decade however a small percentage of my country's GDP is actually spent on the health sector. Less than 5% infact. More information is available here.
Most are fine assuming and living in false sense of hope that they will never need a health cover! It took me a year to convince my mother that she needs an excellent health cover (she has had a half-decent policy until then) that she has today (even as she's never needed to use it) and it's worth paying for it even as I got her to enrol for it. She understood it's importance as I got out of my first surgery!
Indians are amongst the most under Insured!
Despite increasing penetration of insurance and savings schemes, only 10% of the Indian population is insured a large portion of my country's population is grossly under-insured or not insured at all. The government is always under pressure owing to the increasing population and it's unlikely that we'll ever see a social security system that compares to the west in the security or atleast the perceived security it provides.
I can't imagine going through life without a contingency plan. A health and life insurance must be at the forefront of your financial planning at all times.
Let's Talk!
Would you consider answering these five questions in the comments below?
- Do you have a health Insurance?
- Why haven't you purchased one yet?
- Does your government provide you with the facility or
- Do you subscribe to a private health cover that you can avail at hospital of your choice?
- How much insurance premium do you pay towards your annual cover?
I did not have any personal health cover of my own until the age of 27 and I feel foolish for not getting one sooner. Better late than never eh?
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This post is amazing!!
I am truly embarrassed by the healthcare in the U.S. It's pretty bad. And I agree that it's absolutely necessary! Either that or healthcare needs to be affordable in general. Which I'm not sure how that would work, Unless doctors got paid very little. Which doesn't seem fair either.
It's a conundrum without an easy answer. If the big pharma reduce their margins then maybe the overall healthcare costs (education + availing medical facilities) will come down!
It's a detailed article you've got there and I fully agree on your core message that everyone should have a sufficient health insurance. In todays world it should be possible to guarantee it to everyone being covered through tax money and affordable contributions of each individual. But unfortunately this isn't the case as some countries still don't care about it that much and rather spend all the money on other projects 🙁
Thank you so much for reading through it and leaving a comment. Were long way to go towards 100% accountability in any aspect of our lives. Medical care is one of the most vital areas of our lives which seems to be in need for a full reboot!
Oh yeah it definitely needs that in many countries but unfortunately some people in the top positions are still more interested in investing into war and it's whole industry 🙁
Absolutely. War is an industry and rather booming since forever now!
The issue is that many people are just earning too much money within the war industry. Someone in the Top should finally push the downgrade of all military worldwide 😐
I agree! Probably achievable in an entirely new world order it would seem.
It is about time for the United States to incorporate universal health care into the parliamentary system. If you weight the social costs compared to the financial costs the social costs would easily outweigh the financial costs. Health insurance so only exist if you want to go to a private clinic for special treatment. Government hospitals should covered by the tax dollars you pay out as an individual. Where are all these dollars going if they are not going to healthcare
Yeah! For the taxes paid, citizens deserve better!
I wonder the same everytime I pay my taxes! :D
Sure in Canada we do pay a high amount of taxes - 50 % in some cases, in the same breath we have free health care and a gambit of different social services to keep people off the streets. You would think with 10 times the tax base as Canada, things would be a lot better in the USA.
50%!!
WOW! that sounds like an awful lot but I can totally understand. Atleast you get back in way of social services etc. We dont really have those that is effective towards our population. US needs to lead the way but I doubt the govt, big pharma and insurance companies will ever look beyond their profits. Same goes for India too!
Ya if you are making over 150K in some cases your better off only making 120K. However there are many loopholes in the Canadian tax system. As long as the dividends are "eligible" - this a tax term, A tax payer can receive up to 50K in dividends, without paying any taxes personally. That is if it is their only source of income of course.
Ah Loopholes! Ofcourse. Every tax system out there is built with one so a few can make the most of it!
I agree its a necessity!
i came from a 3rd world country and having it is optional
the rate of death there is freaking high because most of the pips don't have this and they are the ones who often get sick
unfortunately the past govt leaders don't do anything about it
the new president is taking action - it's Duterte
many hates him but in fairness this is one of his projects to give the pips an affordable health insurance
whether they are funding the poorest there I have no idea but if this project materializes I just hope we don't go broke and everyone really gets taken care of
its the food industry thats making our pips sick though
insured or not insured a healthy person not being poisoned by the food industry around him won't need any health insurance IMHO
Yeah totally agree. In the last case it wont be of much help these days.
I feel kinda foolish here.
I don't have health insurance.
In Estonia it's free. All I have to do is register myself as jobless or find a job (pay my taxes) and I'm covered. But I'm actively searching for a job right now so that feels useless. (But you never know what might happen, so I probably should)
@firepower It would mean a lot if you could take a look at my latest post. It's for a good cause, nothing selfish.
I see. Well atleast you have that as an option. You should consider getting yourself insured I suppose..
Yeah.
Laziness, man's biggest enemy.
True that!
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I would love to get a health insurance plan with a yearly premium of $105. That is about what my current health insurance costs per month, and they only cover 50% of my costs (After a $2000 deductible). It sounds like Indian health care costs may be less inflated than here in the U.S. and more efficiently regulated by the free market. How would you rate the quality of the health care you received? Would you recommend that someone like myself living in the U.S. travel overseas somewhere like India or Singapore to receive cheaper surgeries?
They currently are less inflated but for the masses it is still way too expensive and much too quickly!
The quality of healthcare is top notch and India already has medical tourism where people visit from world over for healthcare and cheaper surgeries. You have many excellent hospitals offering all modern facilities.
I have always considered health insurance but the premiums in my country are shit + there is public hospital.
Haha I see. Cyprus is it? The public healthcare here is in a sad state of affair... so one has to rely on private all the time.
Yeap! Well at least in India you can see people from Australia and Murica travel to get their operations. In Cyprus...well..lets just say that everyone is fleeing away
Oh damn! You are right though. We maybe still an 'emerging nation' but in some areas we're doing quite okay.
In the Netherlands where I live all those questions are answered in a mandatory fashion. We have to have health insurance.
I once traveled to the US to study for 6 months and you had to bring a letter pertaining to the coverage of your health insurance.
I got called into the university's international office. They thought my letter was fake because it said all costs would be covered. Which it in fact said, and it was also true....
Hahaha! That's incredible. I bet the University officials must have been taken aback!
I have to say I love the Netherlands. I spent couple of weeks there last year and maybe come back for more vacation days this year. I have some great Dutch friends from there!
I'm a firm believe of health and life insurance. Thanks!
Me too! Thanks for reading!
to be honest about US healthcare, it's very complicated mess. They don't know how to fix it. Too many people make alot of money and they don't want to see a change. However, we are running over a cliff if we don't change because of the rising costs.
I hope the government does something about it soon!
good question....to me it goes one of two ways....either you have single payer or intense competition....you can't do healthcare half way
Absolutely right!
time will tell...but I have no faith in the people in charge
The USA healthcare system is not about health it's all about $$$$. Minimal actual health care goes on more pill pushing, druging and injecting that anything else.
True that! :(
agreed.. need to get mine done soon enough :P
What are you waiting for dude? :D
The reason why The USA the Global leader has not solved it's health care crisis with their fancy technology is because BIG PHARMA (the Pharmaceutical companies) would loose money. Insurance and Big Pharma are linked together and are a money making operation. Sadly!
Thats true!
Agree, everyone should have excellent health insurance.
Indeed!
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Thanks but i've received higher engagement on my previous posts already. This bot needs some upgrades dear bot owner.
Followed and upvoted.
thank you
Great work my dear
thanks