The lifestyle of individuals has drastically changed over the years. This change has witnessed a rise in lifestyle diseases and their soaring treatment costs. When a medical ailments attacks, it not only impacts mentally, but also often tends to strain your finances. Financial advisors thus recommend you have a backup plan in the form of a health insurance cover. This article has eight such reasons that make it critical to invest early in health insurance policies.
#1 Easy on your pocket: Buying an insurance policy early in life will give you benefits of being affordable and cheap. Not only being within your budget, but these plans also offer comprehensive coverage for future medical treatments. For instance, a health insurance policy at age 25 for a sum insured of ₹5 lakhs may cost around ₹5,000 whereas, at age 35, it might go up to ₹6000. These amounts are indicative of a standard policy and vary among insurance companies. The reason for this differential pricing for the same coverage is that as age increases, one becomes more and more prone to ailments.
#2 Coverage from your employer is not sufficient: Employers often provide perquisites in the form of a group insurance plan. While these plans are beneficial, at times they can be inadequate in the coverage they offer. Moreover, a group insurance policy cannot be tailored to your needs. They are preset for the entire organisation. Thus, having an individual policy along with group insurance cover that checks all your customized needs like cashless health insurance is a smart choice.
#3 Increase in lifestyle-related diseases: As mentioned above, since there is an increase in lifestyle diseases due to a sedentary lifestyle, more and more people require medical attention. Having a safety net in the form of a health insurance policy helps avail timely treatment without worrying about finances.
#4 Work might make you busy to ignore your health: Although the adage, health is wealth, emphasises on having a healthy life, many times it is noticed that your focus on work commitments takes a toll on your health. A health insurance policy aids for any unexpected medical assistance required including critical ailments.
#5 Better financial planning: Buying a health insurance policy early not only has the benefits of an affordable policy, but also implies better financial planning. The unforeseen medical emergencies at times require a huge outflow of resources for its treatment. It can be insured using a medical insurance cover. Further, it helps to preserve your other investments by not requiring to liquidate them in case of a medical emergency.
#6 More than just hospitalisation: Health insurance plans cover expenses of hospitalisation including other treatments like daycare procedure, OPD treatment, medical check-up and more. Hence, health check-up is an added bonus in some health insurance plans.
#7 More benefits when you need it: Purchasing health insurance at an early stage in life does not require you to wait for long to avail the treatment. Health insurance plans have waiting periods that require the policyholder to wait before insurance coverage kicks in. This period is completed early when you are young and healthy and the entire policy benefit is available when you need it the most.
#8 Comprehensive deal: Buying health insurance at a young age ensures there are hardly any or no pre-existing ailments. This way, the premiums are affordable while the scope of the policy is at large. So, any diagnosis in the future gets automatically covered under your policy coverage.
These are some advantages of buying health insurance early in life. Make sure you understand thoroughly what is health insurance and its policy terms to get complete coverage without missing on the fine print.