Is your Company Group Health Insurance Cover Enough ?

POSTED BY Jagoinvestor ON July 19, 2012 COMMENTS (103)

Are you covered under your company’s group health insurance policy? If you are a salaried person, then in all probabilities you must be having your employers health insurance plan which must be covering you, your spouse, children, and parents or some of them. But a lot of people do not want to take a separate health insurance plan from health insurance companies and just want to continue their employer’s group health insurance cover as it looks most affordable Health Insurance to them. However one should also consider an individual health insurance plan for various reasons. Let’s see a few points which you should think about your employer’s group Health Insurance.

Group Health Insurance

1. Your Employer may take back the Health benefit

Health Insurance costs are provided as a perk in many companies. Health Insurance costs are borne by companies themselves and it might happen that in future your employer might take back the benefit of health cover and tell you that it’s not available now onwards. Either you just don’t get it or you need to pay the premiums yourself, just that they can assist employees to get it faster. The other thing which can happen is that they can also reduce the cover itself to lower their burden.

2. Your company may exclude your parents from the health cover

Its something which has already started in many companies. Earlier parents were part of the employer’s health cover, but these days a lot of companies are excluding parents from the health policy provided to the employees. If this happens then anyways you need to cover your parents with an individual health insurance plan.

3. You might not get health cover with your next employer

This is pretty obvious. Not all companies provide health cover in the same way. What is the guarantee that you will get the same kind of cover and benefits in your next companies? I hope you are not going to argue that you will never leave your current job, many people have this point when they argue that they have the cover with their current employer, but then you never know about the future.

4. Will it help you in retirement?

By now you should have been clear that you need health insurance more for your bad days, when you cross 50 and reach your retirement because health insurance is a long term policy and you should always take it considering it for next 20-30 yrs. Things like lifetime renewal and no co-pay in later years are sought after features these days. So even if your employer provides a good health cover right now, what about retirement? When you go to health insurance companies later to buy the plans, be sure that you will not get it or you will pay in gold!

5. Do you have enough Company Health Insurance Cover?

Not many, In the recent survey we did on health insurance cover, the fact that 60% of people (on this blog) have their health insurance cover less than 50% of their annual take-home, now a lot of them must be having it from their employer. Don’t see that you have a health cover, look at the quantum of the health cover? Ask if it is enough for you? Is it something that can support you in case something goes wrong!

Good point about Employer group Health Insurance cover

I don’t say, your employer’s’s health insurance cover is bad. All I am saying it apart from your company health insurance , you might also want to look at a separate policy , that’s all . Some of the best things which an employer health insurance provides is that its easily available without any limitations and restrictions. If you are an employee and the group health insurance is there, you will get it even if you have any pre-existing illness . No one denies it because of a higher age or any past history.

Make sure you have independent Health insurance cover 

The point is that an employer group health insurance cover is a cover which is linked with your employer and hence dependent on him, Its so tied with your company. You should aim at having at-least one independent health insurance plan in your life which you can cover and control, This should be in addition to your employers group health insurance plan.

Do you agree with these points ? Do you think one should take a separate health plan apart from their employers group health cover ?

103 replies on this article “Is your Company Group Health Insurance Cover Enough ?”

  1. Priyanka says:

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  2. Sudheep says:

    Hi Manish/Mahavir

    I had a family floater policy from my employer(for which i had to pay a premium).
    My last working day in present company is 4 march 2014.
    My mother hospitalized and undergone a surgery on 28-2-14.
    My cash less claim was approved.
    I need to know what happened if mother is not discharged on/before 4-3-14.
    Does I get coverage upto 4-3-2014?
    Whether I have to inform hospital that I have resined from 4-3-14?(Does there any complication after cashless approval in future)?

    Please give me a reply asap.

  3. Rajiv says:

    Hi Manish i have a Questions

    have corporate health insurance policy with TTK Healthcare and premium is paid by my company GT nexus software Pvt Ltd.

    In the month of Nov 20th 2013 I have resigned from this company and serving 2 month Notice period which completes on 17th Jan 2014, Between this period i had 2 medial expense where My father was admitted from 25 Dec to 30th DEC 2013 and My wife has delivered a baby on 30th Dec .

    As per the Policy rules bills should be submitted within a month to get the claim , since it was not cashless and i did the same on 15th Jan 2014.

    However both the Expenses happen at the time i was associated with the company and serving notice period, So can you please advice if my case will be considered , Since my company is telling as you have resigned claim will not be considered .

    Kindly help to advice on this as what should i do if its a legal case and Insurance company is not considering this claim.

    Thanks

    Rajiv

    1. I dont think you will get it. You should be EMPLOYED at that moment, But because you had already given the resignation, you were just on notice period. This is my understanding. You will have to find this exact thing in your contract with your company

      Manish

      1. Sunil says:

        Isn’t being on notice period part of being employed in the organization? When companies give relieving letter they mention that the employee was on service until the last date of the employee. They must legally pay salary and allowances too which are normal. Why should the benefits denial be legal – medical , accidental , life insurance?

        Is this argument valid from a legal perspective? I am in the same situation as explained above so wanting to know the answers!

        Sunil

        1. Sunil

          Any benefits is as per company’s policy . There is no compulsion by law to provide any insurance benefits etc . SO company can define their own rules

  4. black131078 says:

    manish i have a question for you i am working in a mnc company which is aegis india but the company is not providing with a health insurance for employees and does not pay any thing extra for medical also so in this case what steps can be taken if some one is sick also they will not provide sick leave or any type of medical felicity what to do please let me know please

    1. You cant do anything in this case. There is now legal required to provide employees with this. So you are working there because you agree to their terms and conditions .

  5. Phani says:

    I’m not getting health insurance because i have type-1 diabetes.Any suggestions on this.( I’m 28 years old) 🙁

    1. In that case, I think its really not possible . Always note that INSURANCE is for protection and not cure !

  6. Nitin says:

    i am working corprate & i was using corprate medical policy for entire family but i am planning to quit and i want to port my policy to indiviul but they are saying no to it & i dont other policy

    please suggest me on same

    1. A good option is Oriental or Max Bupa

  7. Anubhav Saini says:

    Hi Manish,

    My company switches its Group Insurance every year. Is it a good thing from employees perspective?
    Kindly suggest me any health insurance, which i should consider and which covers my dad and mom too. My income is 3.3 lac annualy.

    Best Regards
    Anubhav

    1. No its not . Better get a good health insurance company !

  8. Pooja chaubey says:

    Makes sense Manish. Should go for individual health policy. Great thanks.

  9. Prateek says:

    Now with the option of health insurance portability, it is possible to convert one’s coverage as part of group policy to individual policy. In the light of that isn’t it good enough to convert the group policy to individual policy when you resign/retire? A 6 lakhs coverage from my company and 3 lakhs from my wife’s company for the two of us and an infant daughter is good enough I feel.Parents have separate cover for themselves. What is your suggestion? Is additional cover still advisable and worth it?

    1. Mahavir Chopra says:

      Hello Prateek,

      Portability is accepted by the new insurance company, based on their underwriting guidelines. They can deny portability on the grounds of claims made or ailments contracted while you are covered under the Group plan.

      Not a dependable solution at all.

      Regards,

      Mahavir

      1. Prateek says:

        I am talking about converting the policy to individual with the same provider(and not porting to some other provider). I think the company which was providing group cover *cannot* refuse to convert the policy to an individual policy. This is my understanding.

        1. Mahavir Chopra says:

          They can refuse. IRDA asks Insurers to apply their underwriting guidelines while accepting portability cases. If one’s ailment is a reject as per these guidelines, it is a reject. We have had several cases, where there have been denials.

  10. Ashu Mahajan says:

    Hi Manish,

    Can an Insurance company reject a proposal just because they think my current health is risky? Also how can they say that health is risky based on only past hospitalizations that were at least 6-8 years old for Stones removal. I have migraine and BP problem now. They rejected applciation saying it’s a risky? Can they really do that?

    Thanks

    1. Obviously it can . If its a little risky , then they should do the loading (increase the premium) , but if they feel that the risk is extremelly high to cover you, like a sure shot business loss for them, then how will they cover you ?If you were an insurance company and if you find someone health is very bad, will you cover him for 10k per year for a 1 crore cover ?

      At the end, it does not make business sense ! . So yes, they can reject if they do not see Profit in insuring you. Its all part of underwriting of insurance companies. Try with other insurance companies.. I think you should have taken the life insurance long back .

      Btw, can you share about your health status ?

      Manish

      1. Ashu Mahajan says:

        Hi Manish,

        Thanks for the reply. Thankfully, I have already taken the life insurance. Now I was trying to take Health insurance. I am 37 years old. I have Hypertesnion and Migraine problem. Migraine is under control with my regular medicines prescribed by doctor. I have been hospitalized thrice before (all 7-8 years back).
        1) For kidney Stone removal 2) For food poisoning 3) For slipping and breaking my tooth and other injuries. Slipping was probably due to fading/tiring. I have got my brain MRI done thrice and no problem detected so far. Doctors conclusion is that all I have is BP and Hypertension. I declared all this to insurance company. based on that they rejected my proposal.

        1. As per their underwriting procedures, you might be too risky to insure… Did you check with other companies ?

        2. Mahavir Chopra says:

          Hello Ashu,

          You can get health insurance from other insurance companies. Please try other companies, maybe PSU companies, and you will get the policy.

  11. Vishal says:

    Hi Manish,
    I have a query on Top Up plan, did not find a seperate discussion on it hence posting here.

    DO Top Up plan also have sub-limits like room rent upto 1% of SI, ICU charges etc…?
    Or do they pay entire amount above the deductible.

    1. They will also have the sum limits , did you check their website ?

  12. Shiv says:

    Thank you Manish for your prompt response.

    Regards
    Shiv

  13. Shiv says:

    Hi Manish

    Had taken PNB-Oriental Royal Mediclaim Policy for my in-laws (both senior citizens) last year. They had undergone bye-pass surgery prior to taking the insurance policy. While filling up the policy form ailment of bye-pass surgery was not mentioned as oversight. Now they want to renew that policy. They would be mentioning same in the policy form now.

    As per the policy pre-existing diseases would not be covered for 4 years. Though they have not makde any claims this year, would they have to wait one extra year by declaring it as the pre-existing disease now? Or would last year would also be considered while computing 4 years?

    Thanks in advance.

    Regards
    Shiv

    1. Shiv

      Obviously the last year will not be counted, the pre-existing desease will not be covered for 4 yrs from the date it is mentioned. You should pay that the policy is renewed and not denied actually !

  14. Ajay says:

    Hi Manish,

    Thanks for the good article. I have always seen all Finace / Investment expert do recommend taking additional cover apart from the employer cover.

    I have small query thought. When you take Health insurance policy, you normally get it only for a year. So your cover lasts only for an year.. eg. Say i apply for health insurance for my family today (and my age is 34 years) – 30th July 2012, i would get cover until 29th July 2013. After an year, i would still be required to renew the cover and insurance company may well decide to put me in higher age bracket of (35 years and above) and increase the premium for next year.

    What benefit did i get taking policy at age of 34? Will it ensure that when i turn 35 insurance company wont increase the premium on renewal? If they are can increase the premium then not sure if i get any long terma advantage of having separate policy. Instead i would invest that money somewhere else and use it when i turn 50 or more to put at higher premium (which in any case i will have to bear even if i take insurance now)

    Can you please clarify?
    Ajay

    1. Ajay

      It does not work like that .

      When you have a policy with a company, the next year when renewal comes, its not neccessary that they increase the premium , if there is no claim, or you had a good history , the premium might be the same, it goes up only if some conditions met , however if you do not have a policy with them and go to them next year , then surely your premium will be up as per your current age .

      The next advantage of taking it early is that all your illness , diseases will start getting covered . If you do not take it now , may be later they can just refuse your application and not give you any policy at all , or have some restrictions on your claim as well !

  15. Jivan says:

    I have a 1.5 year baby having pre-existing dieases (Conginetal). No any insurance company is willing to provide the insurance cover to my baby. Do you have any idea, which plan/company is providing insurance cover in such cases . I am comfortable to pay reasonable higher premium or having a policy for waiting period to claim.

    Please Guide.

    Thanks

    1. JIvan

      What Illness is it . Ideally health insurers should cover it with higher premium and not reject it . Please enquire more on our forum – https://www.jagoinvestor.com/forum

  16. Penchal says:

    Hi Manish,

    I have a question for you. This may be simple also.

    Recently, my friend’s father(retd. govt teacher) is advised to undergo By-Pass surgery. His father has some cover from state govt 1.5Lac. Through my friend’s company Group health insurance, his father has a cover for another 1.5 lac. So, it totals to 3 lacs from different sources. Now the surgery cost him 2.5 lacs. Can he approach both the insurers to cover entire 2.5 lacs of surgery expenses?

    Your advice will help.

    Thanks

    1. Yes , he should be able to get a cover of 2.5 lacs jointly . He should cover 1.5 lacs from state and 1 lac from group cover of his son .

  17. Dishant Verma says:

    Hi Manish

    This is a great article. Thanks so much.

  18. Agree completely. Today’s fast pace of life, unhealthy food habits and lack of exercise ,the increasing stress levels has resulted in people contracting lifestyle diseases at a much younger age.This coupled with the alarming rate of medical inflation makes it essential that we do not compromise on health insurance expenses and have an individual health cover in addition to the one provided by the employer.

    1. Yes , thanks for your comment on this subject !

  19. mayank says:

    Thanks Manish

    You are doing a great job, I like to read your posts on Jago Investor and find most of the articles informative and insightful.

    KUDOS! logon ko yun hi jagate raho.

  20. Pankaja VL says:

    I have been thinking about this, but have been dilly-dallying for the last one year. I am married and have two kids (5 and 1.5yrs) and we both work and are covered by company policy. Any suggestion on how to choose an appropriate cover?

  21. Ankur says:

    Hi Guys,
    Bajaj Allianz has a medical insurance top up plan called Extra care
    It will give you extra SI after your primary Insurance.
    For Eample if u have a group Insurance of 3 lacs from your employer and you take a 7 lacs extra care from bajaj allainz , both the insurance will cover you for 10 lacs .
    Pls give your views on it.

    1. seems to be a good option for now , need to study it more !

  22. YM says:

    Thanks for a nice article.But what about people serving in organizations like army, navy? I am in army and was denied health insurance cover from star stating that the army medical corps covers the health insurance needs. pl advise and clarify if additional cover from a private health insurance company required/ available for defence personelle

    1. I guess army guys get health insurance benefits form army when they are in job and even in their retirement , not ?

      1. sanjeev says:

        Thanks Manish for enlighting us with good articles. Few cents …
        People should be very very cautious when not opting a personal insurance.
        One need to be aware of insurance policies of current and new organizations (if planning to change) and then can make the calls.
        One need to ensure that it is zero overlap when changing to a new organization.
        Also as i understand, the Employer insurance covers the health insurance from the day one for the employee, but i am not sure if that applies to his dependents?

        Manish, i have a general query on these health insurances.
        Generally the premium amounts of the health insurance are high with increase in age. Do we have any Long term insurance policies like the riders of Term insurance? Actually i took a Term insuranace with Aviva without any riders. Now i am looking for a Long term health insurance/crtical illness whose premium should be fixed through out the tenure. As per my observation these sort of insurances are always tied with term or ULIP etc. Can you suggest some policies which suits my requirments

        1. This question is more suitable for our forum : http://www.jagoinvestor.com/forum

  23. Siddhant says:

    I think depending on Company insurance is very dangerous in today’s scenario, The issue is that the Insurance Coverage Decision is made by HR Department in consultation with Finance. I know for fact that the insurance knowledge of both is very very primitive & will be driven mostly by Financial consideration. I know of one case where the company changed the rules to exclude pregnancy benefits to reduce the cost. So it is always better to have your own insurance policy.

    1. Yes ,thats exactly the point I am making !

  24. Harsh says:

    Thanks for the article Manish, this is a very good topic that u have chosen. I burned my hands financially last year because i didn’t realized that my new employer didn’t cover my parents, my old employer did, so and i thought its obvious that the new one is also covering them. And when my parent required emergency medical care i have to shell out money from my own pocket. Though now i have covered them.

    Well important points are already discussed here in detail, I would like to add however good your company or corporate health insurance is, dont forget that its an invisible part of your CTC.

    Companies do a very detailed cost-benefit analysis of how much they can afford to pay for employee group health insurance and consider it while making your package and may change it any time they think its getting financially unfeasible for them.
    And the worst part of their decision making (for you, not them 🙂 ) is that they decide for everyone taking out an average. So what may be just enough for someone maybe too little for you.

    I am not saying you don’t need to rely on company insurance but its always good to have an own health insurance.

    Harsh

    1. Yes

      Good point , So finally the conclusion is Company provided cover should be suppliment , not the main cover .

  25. Recently before five months my friend resigned from an MNC company and he have and Insurance coverage of Rs.3lac and he might be paying Rs.900 per year for his individual..Is it covered for whole family or only the person or with nominee..My friend asked me and I told to ask the company..My Friend dont have any original copy of policy with him his regional office of company owns it..If he asks they never responds,Is there any chance to get from insurance provider for original and the benefits even though relieved from the company..

    1. It might be a group cover, if thats the case , she might not be having it now . It will be there only for the time she is employed ! . I would suggest she talks to customer care of the Insurance company and enquires about this

      1. Manishji

        The policy is still in live ..How come they know when we resign..And policy is covered for one year..My friend spoken to customer care and they told to have original copy of policy so they can help further.Now she is in plan to follow for original policy.

        1. Ok, yea it might be for a year .. also ask her to check if she can continue it next year again by paying the premium , I dont think its possible , but still !

  26. Ravindra M. Kale says:

    Yes Manish, I am very convinced about Separate Mediclaim. I am little confused about the total cover.
    should I add the total amount of health coverage from my company about 1 lac & my separate policy of 3lacs?
    Ravindra

    1. Yes , go for atleast 5 lacs i would say

  27. Parag Rodrigues says:

    Hi Manish,

    Good Article. Your book had inspiured me to cover my family & opt to go thruogh suggested Medi-Manage team.. You every statement is simple & easy to understand.. God Bless you……

    Hi All,

    Have recently bought Apollo Munich Restore Benefit plan whcih is very crucial in terms of additinal coverage. It has Life tiume Renewal with no Co-pay. I have TAKEN premium to cover my family floater paln to Rs. 5 Lacs just 9 days ago.

    This is in addition to my Employer Healt Covergae package of 3 Lacs . Essentialy, for every claim free period, your Sum assured increases by 50% till it reached to 100%. An add-on —->It has 1 GREAT POINT OF RESTORE BENEFIT which would be made available whenever you get exhauste with your overall amount in a particular year.

    I doubt we have such features made avaible by any other Health Insurance companies. Aside, before you buy the Health Insurance ensure to take it via MeidManage —-> Health Insurance Broker who guides, recommends BEST POSSIBLE PLANS & addresses all your concerns.

    Moreover, they act as Single point of contact for you in case of any claim settleement, follow-up with Insurance Company, etc.

    This is very good plan for Young Guns who are in adge of 27 – 35 yrs as this would aid to get maximum benefit at later stage of life in case of any health issues… (keep your fingers crossed NOT TO have any major health issues)…

    1. Good to hear you got benefitted by my book 🙂 .

  28. Parag Rodrigues says:

    Hi Manish,

    Good Article. Your book had inspiured me to cover my family & opt to go thruogh suggested Medi-Manage team.. You every statement is simple & easy to understand.. God Bless you…… 🙂

    Hi All,

    Have recently bought Apollo Munich Restore Benefit plan whcih is very crucial in terms of additinal coverage. It has Life tiume Renewal with no Co-pay. I have TAKEN premium to cover my family floater paln to Rs. 5 Lacs just 9 days ago.

    This is in addition to my Employer Healt Covergae package of 3 Lacs . Essentialy, for every claim free period, your Sum assured increases by 50% till it reached to 100%. An add-on —->It has 1 GREAT POINT OF RESTORE BENEFIT which would be made available whenever you get exhauste with your overall amount in a particular year.

    I doubt we have such features made avaible by any other Health Insurance companies. Aside, before you buy the Health Insurance ensure to take it via MeidManage —-> Health Insurance Broker who guides, recommends BEST POSSIBLE PLANS & addresses all your concerns.

    Moreover, they act as Single point of contact for you in case of any claim settleement, follow-up with Insurance Company, etc.

    This is very good plan for Young Guns who are in adge of 27 – 35 yrs as this would aid to get maximum benefit at later stage of life in case of any health issues… (keep your fingers crossed to have any major health issues)…

  29. KRANTIVIR RAJPUT says:

    My present employer does not give any health insurance. Also because of earlier posts of Manish regarding Mediclaim,I took one APPOLO MUNICH OPTIMA HEALTH RESTORE PLAN for 5 LAKHS.This too was a good article regarding our attitude, knowlegde of personal mediclaim plan wrt to one provided by company.

    1. Good to heat that 🙂 .

  30. jiza says:

    Very useful and correct information is given here. A must read for all.

  31. Sanchay says:

    Will it help you in retirement ?

    This is anyways not going to help, every now and then these companies change the policies, increase the premiums, and stop providing covers. Just search over google and you will find lot of such cases being reported.

    1. Saket says:

      Agree with you. They guarantee lifetime renewals, but do not guarrantee the cost of future renewals? And yes they can (and do) suddenly change premiums and policy terms and conditions. Sometimes they call it a lifetime contract and sometimes an yearly contract as per their convenience.

      I believe, a lot more regulation is needed in the field of health insurance than any other.

    2. Yes there are cases . Things will settle down in coming years … health insurance is new in india ..

  32. Rajesh says:

    Which is the best family medical insurance policy for couples aged 55 /45

    1. here are some policies like Oriental Happy Family Floater which is a good one !

  33. mayank says:

    Hi Manish

    Totally agreed with you. Apart from employer, One should cover his entire family with adequate health covers. In fact recently witnessed one of the above mentioned scenarios of job change. My previous employer was covering my whole family(including parents) while new employer has no provisions for group health insurance(Though i was under impression that as a prevalent practice in industry, they might be providing this hence had no discussions over that at the time of interview but at the time of joining i was shocked to know the fact that they don’t provide group health insurance). Moreover there was some time lag (12 days) between leaving my old employer and joining my new employer. Obviously Immediately after leaving the prev organization, health cover provided by them was not available to me. In this transistion period of 12 days, in an emergency, in an expensive metro like Delhi, i had to undergo a cystolithotripsy which anywhere cost me around Rs 80,000/-. Who bore this expense ? Me ? No, the Insurance company. Thanks god a year back I covered myself & family by a self-financed health insurance policy. And the same policy will do a good job for me because my new employer is not providing the group health insurance cover.

    Another scenario not mentioned in this article may be a temporary unemployment (for few days, for few months). Man! the world is not just perfect. Unexpected things happen in life. Additional health cover may benefit in those days.

    How much health cover should a person take? I think it should not be a factor of a person’s annual take home but should be a factor of his family size, family health history & his lifestyle. Any suggestions?

    1. Thanks for sharing your experience. Your inputs will really help others. Your cover should depend on the family health history and life style , not just the income , income is more of a indicator of lifestyle in most of the cases !

    2. Easwaran Krishna Swamy says:

      Mr Manish,
      Thanks for the insight.
      Regards
      eas

  34. Ramesh says:

    You are right, I have it from my company and a personal one as well. In the long run it is beneficial.

    1. Thanks for sharing !

  35. Madhava ram says:

    Thanks Manish for this article.

    I would like to add some points to this.
    1) Suppose you have Health insurance from your company and additional Health insurance which you taken, unfortunately if you need to be hospitalized you always claim from your company, rather than the individual one because for 2 year if you do not claim you get the No-Claim-Bonus upto 50% of your premium.

    2) Additional Health Insurance apart from the company you get tax exemption upto 15,000 for your family and 15,000 for your parents.

    Thanks,
    Madhava ram

    1. Thanks for the first tip ! .. really useful

      1. Hem says:

        I think you should claim the hospital expenses from both the polices. Hiding the policy may not be good and verify consequences once.

      2. Hem says:

        I think you should claim the hospital expenses from both the polices. Hiding the policy may not be good. Verify consequences once.

        1. No , you are free to claim it at any company , there is no complusion

  36. Premji Bhanushali says:

    Why take separate health cover early in life? What are the benefits for doing that?
    Are Schemes like life time renewal really available? Any info on that?

    1. Dominic says:

      If you take a health policy early in life, at the time of retirement you will be paying just 1/10th of premium for 10 times more coverage.

    2. Easwaran Krishna Swamy says:

      Sir,
      If we take seperate health cover we can cover any number of dependents in that policy, depending upon the premium. If you are interested in knowing more about the products, please contact me (easwaran_ks@yahoo.co.in or 813-0744-073 (Delhi)). I work for Max Life Insurance Co. (Earlier Max New York Life Ins Co Ltd) and we have specially designed many products for people from different lifestyles. We can offer need-based products in life, medical, children’s plans, retirement plans, etc. Regards, easwaran

  37. Premji Bhanushali says:

    My wife is 58 years and I 65 years old. Health cover that ex-employer provides is merely Rs.2/- lacs for self and spouse and that too for the entire life time. This is too meagre as cataract operation of the 4 eyes takes away that amount. However taking a separate health insurance cover at this age is expensive. Any suggestions?

    1. Dominic says:

      I recently took a policy (Varshita or not sure) from National Insurance for my mother 72 years. It covers 2 lacs max. You can check the same.

      1. Saket says:

        Is that true Dominic? I have heard about health insurers steeply increasing the premium (unlike term insurance premium where premium is fixed for the term). If it is so, no guarantee that I would be paying only 1/10th of the permium charged to a new entrant. I believe the insurerswill keep on increasing the premiums to keep pace with medical-inflation-rate (which is very steep).

        1. Dominic says:

          I was just comparing a person who is taking a health policy at the age of 65 with a person who took similar policy at the age of 40.

          I have a friend whose coverage increases every year for the same premium as he has not used his insurance. I took my insurance after seeing his records.

  38. Ganesh Balasundaram says:

    Nice article Manish!
    My 5 cents added below…

    1. Take the minimalist insurance given by the company. Normally as stated in the article, companies charge a higher premium if you include parents. If the higher premium is lesser than current market than include them as well.
    2. Now buy an additional cherry-picked insurance (after comparing out coverage/# of hospital tie-ups/day care coverage/pre-existing inclusions/premium/inclusion of senior citizens) mainly including parents, in-laws who are typically not covered by the company’s policies.
    3. Make sure atleast you (the breadwinner) is common (max could be your family that is already insured) in both buckets.
    4. The order of claim for you/dependents can come from the company’s bucket first and if in excess can go to the other bucket. For parents/in-laws it comes from the other bucket.
    5. You also have the advantage get a benefit from Section 80D upto 15K for dependents and upto 20K in case they are senior citizens. See here for more details: http://www.investmentyogi.com/taxes/tax-benefits-under-section-80d-80dd-and-80ddb.aspx

    Regards,
    Ganesh.

    1. Thats a well thought out plan ..

      Did you do the same thing ?

      1. Ganesh Balasundaram says:

        Yes. The company offered me a 2L coverage from UIA which covers me, spouse and son. I took another group policy from OICL of 6L to cover my mother (58yrs), myself, spouse and son. Interestingly the computation came to a little excess of 15K. Through Section-80D, this would be completely exempted and I in absolute terms would have paid only ~10K for this policy.

  39. Ravishankar says:

    Hi,

    One more thing, one must take personal health insurance to benefit of pre-existing deaseas. It can be taken by buying a least premium insurace. In future, it can be increased.

    1. Yea , I would say one has to take it much before any illness itself !

  40. Ravishankar says:

    I agree with the points. One should have a personal / family health insurance other than provided by Employer.
    If one feels it waste of money then he should have an insurance with minimum sum assured which has least premium so that he can take benefit of coverage of pre-existing deseases.

  41. Swetank Saroj says:

    Hi Manish,

    Thank you for this article.

    It may help the people to understand the value of a separate and personal Health Insurance.

    I knowingly or unknowingly took an ICICI Lombard policy for 3lac for me and 3lac combined for my parents in 2008 (7 moths after I start earning); but my mom forced me not to get it renewed citing my dad is in govt service and any major/critical expenses will be taken care of by the govt.

    But I moved to a new policy (ICICI Health Saver, I know it is a ULIP and not a very good one. My only saving grace for this policy is, it helps me to build a medical expense corpus for me when I would actually need it in the fag end of my life or say after 50+) Present coverage is 5lac with the option of increasing it to 20lac (which I will definitely do before 40 years of age). Soon going to join a new organization which has great employee benefits.

    I still need to understand this ULIP in a much better way and then decide whether to increase the coverage in it or go for a new medical policy.

    Thanks,
    Swetank

    1. Thats a good way of looking at ULHP . You can consider the money saved as the health corpus !

  42. Krishna says:

    Manish,

    Our Company provided an option for top up insurance with extra coverage upto 10 lakhs above the corporate benefit, premium payable from employee side, with all corporate benefit features. I happily took it, as it has option of converting to personal one once we leave the company. But not many people opted for it, thinking it is waste of money:(

    Regards
    Krishna

    1. You did good. change it to personal policy later when you leave the job .

      1. Krishna says:

        Manish,

        I will surely do it. I was looking for this type of opportunity,grabbed it when I got it. But pity is 90% of my colleagues dint use it,most of them think it is useless and they never used the limit set by Corporate hence they do not need more. Seriously India needs to be educated regarding insurance matters. Universities should introduce financial planning in their curriculum. Most of them concentrate in making wealth by building either villa’s, or onsite opportunities but least bothered about investing and insurance matters.

        Krishna

        1. Yes.. A lot of action will happen in area of financial literacy in coming years ! ..

    2. Rajagopal says:

      Could you share details of the group insurance policy that your employer offers? By the description of it your policy looks interesting.

      1. We already talked on this on FB 🙂

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