Does it make sense to renew my Health Insurance while I am abroad for next 3 yrs ?

POSTED BY Ram Mohan ON December 30, 2013 12:55 pm COMMENTS (7)

Hi Experts,

Been a long time since I visited these forums, but where else to turn too when I have a pressing question? 🙂 I’ve moved abroad a year back and will be staying abroad for another 3 years. I have a wife and a 2.5 year old kid.

Now, I had a health insurance floater policy (Apollo munich about 10,000 per annum for a cover of 5 Lacs). The time has come for renewal of the same. Now, I have no intentions of moving back to India before end of 2016, but at that point there is a good chance that I’ll move back (assume 80% chance). For the sake of this question, let’s assume 100% chance that I’m moving back.

What would be the wise thing to do? Let the insurance elapse and then take a fresh policy when i’m back in India (note that if I/family fall ill during any holiday to India my overseas insurance will cover)? Or alternatively let the existing insurance policy continue till 2016?

My age is 34, wife is 33 and kid is 2.5. I’m unable to calculate whether the premium increase + wait period increase after 3 years would be more than the 10,000 x 3 = 30,000 that I’ll pay over the next 3 years to continue my cover.

Any calculations/advice is welcome. I’m also not sure whether if I continue to pay my health insurance if it’ll be valid given that I’m actually overseas

Thanks in advance

7 replies on this article “Does it make sense to renew my Health Insurance while I am abroad for next 3 yrs ?”

  1. ashalanshu says:
    January 17, 2014 at 10:46 am

    Dear Ram, thanks for the update.

    Thanks

    Ashal

    Reply
  2. Ram Mohan says:
    January 17, 2014 at 5:00 am

    Ok just to update forum members on what happened. I contacted medimanage multiple times, but got no response.

    I then contacted Apollo Munich directly and they confirmed that the policy can be kept active, but can only be used for hospitalization within India. I did add a line saying that Medimanage are not responding and don’t pay them commission 🙂 and guess what, I got a reply back from Medimanage confirming what Apollo told me!

    Reply
  3. ashalanshu says:
    December 31, 2013 at 2:29 am

    Dear Ram, please discuss the issue with Medimanage people or with your current insurer and you ‘ll get the answer.

    Thanks

    Ashal

    Reply
  4. Ram Mohan says:
    December 31, 2013 at 1:44 am

    Can anybody clarify what the actual deal with Health Insurance…there is a conflicting piece of advice between Manish and Asha — one saying policy can be continued and other saying policy will lapse if I’m NRI

    Reply
  5. ashalanshu says:
    December 30, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    Dear Ram, you like it or not but being NRI, you can not have a Resident policy. if you are running one without informing the insurer, as and when it come to the notice of the insurer, your policy ‘ll lapse. What you should do then? Please ask your Insurer can you convert your existing policy to overseas and revert back to resident policy as and when you return. If it’s possible, you do have a chance.

    Thanks

    Ashal

    Reply
  6. Ram Mohan says:
    December 30, 2013 at 2:32 pm

    Hi Manish,

    Thanks for your response. Is this insurance actually valid if I travel to India (say for holiday) and need hospitalization? Otherwise if the need arises and they don’t cover it since I’m not a resident, then it’s a waste of money

    The reason why I am thinking about the legality of whether this is valid is because when I tried to search for a policy in medimanage as “non-resident”, it was saying there are no products available.

    Ram

    Reply
  7. Manish Chauhan says:
    December 30, 2013 at 1:01 pm

    Hi Ram

    Your health insurance in India will still be valid if you continue being aborad for next 3 yrs and you keep paying premium in India. I personally feel that because you have already taken the policy, you better let it run and keep paying the premium. Health Insurance is a long term thing and Its always better to have a long term relationship with a company .

    Also If I assume that you took this policy somewhere around 2012 , anyways few things have their own waiting period like 2-3 yrs , and by 2014-15 , those things will start getting covered. If you take a fresh policy in 2016, then few important thing will get covered only after 2018-19 .

    Also, if in between you get some illness or some problem, those things will still get covered in this old policy, but if you take a new policy, any new things developed will impact the premium and will come with restrictions .

    So overall , I feel its more better to continue the policy and pay the premium . This wastage of money might make sense

    Manish

    Reply

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