Health Insurance – should we have it or not??

We will be surprised to know that in India not more than 5% of the people have health insurance as per the sources, are rest are either unaware or not having any health insurance. The same justifies the unpopularity of the scheme. Now the question arises is what is a health insurance and should we have it or not?

Now, let’s understand what it is and why do we need it.

Health Insurance: Just like for car we have car/auto insurance, for life we have life insurance the same way for our body/health we have health insurance. When your car is damaged, car insurance helps you pay off your expenses, in case of demise of oneself the life insurance company gives the nominee the policy value, same way if you have any health ailment or any disease which needs medical treatment, the insurance company would cover up to 90% of your expense provided you are insured to that extent.

Why Health Insurance: Let’s say, one fine morning, you wake up and realize that you are having a pain in your chest and it might be a heart attack. You are the only earning member of the family and your wife is a house wife and your kids are in school. You don’t have much of money in your bank to pay for your heart treatment. What would your family do without you? Without the treatment they will be left to fend for themselves without a job and for the treatment you need a few lakhs of rupees which you don’t have either.

And the treatment is necessary as it’s a matter of life and death, and your family needs you for your being the earning member. How would you handle the situation at that point of time?

The answer is very simple you won’t be able to. Keeping that in mind having a health insurance is a must and the same answers the above question that why do we need a health insurance. You don’t want to put your family in a fix, do you?

Appended below are the list of private and public sector companies that provides Health Insurance scheme:

Public Sector companies	Private Sector companies
National Insurance	HDFC Ergo
Oriental Insurance company	TATA AIG
United India Insurance	IFFCO Tokio
New India Assurance	ICICI Lombard
	Chola MS
	Royal Sundram
	Reliance General

Two types of plan are available under the scheme. Personal Protection & Family Protection, in the former case the insurer can protect himself against any illness by covering all the expenses relating to hospitalisation and treatment where in the later case the insurer can protect his family such as wife, children and dependent parents against any medical urgency. One thing to be kept in mind is that there is a direct relation between the amount of premium you are ready to pay vis a vis the cover of expenses. Higher the insurance premium higher would be the cover against medical expenses.