Consider buying an adequate health cover for family

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WITH rising pollution, change in lifestyle and change in eating habits, among others, diseases have attacked mankind today like never before. In the event of an unforeseen illness, you may have no option but to utilise your hard-earned savings. A right health insurance cover is a saviour in such situations and is a must today.

Need for adequate health cover: Today, almost all employers offer a group health policy to their employees. But, these health covers are generally customised covers and may have many restrictions. Some of the common restrictions relate to limited sum insured, family definitions (cover restricted to limited number of family members), co-payment clauses, compulsory deductibles, room rent and ICU limits. The cover is also limited to the employment period and ceases on termination of employment.

Hence, it is advisable that one should think of buying an adequate health cover for himself and his family.

Various ways by which you can ensure an adequate health cover: There are various health insurance products in the market to choose from — an individual policy, a family floater, a policy for elderly parents, a cover that gives a lumpsum benefit on diagnosis of a critical illness, or a hospital cash cover.

A health insurance cover taken as top-up cover over and above the sum insured under the employer's policy will help in case the cost of treatment exceeds the amount provided under the employer-provided cover. Also, in case the employerprovided cover excludes certain family members, such as parents, then additional cover should be bought to ensure that all dependent family members are adequately covered.

Sometime there are co-payment clauses or sub-limits on certain expenses, such as room rent and ICU bills, to name a few.

In such cases, a hospital cash cover is very useful.

Most importantly, the employer-provided covers are valid only

for the period of employment.
Generally, a person's new job starts only after a gap. This gap could be short or long depending on the employment environment and also on how the entire move is timed.
Technically, today, health insurance is portable and an individual can carry the benefits of the employer's policy to a policy bought on an individual basis on termination of employment. Therefore, there may not be any need to keep a concurrent cover in force all the time. However, in case of careers in high turnover industries, it is advisable to keep a concurrent cover just to ensure there is no gap in cover between the two jobs.

Employers typically buy in demnity-based products. This means that the policy pays only for the expenses incurred. But a health contingency is not limited to cover hospitalisation expenses alone. In addition, there are several hospitalisation-associated expenses that are not covered by standard health policies.

To cover the additional expenses, it makes sense to buy an additional hospital cash policy. These policies provide a defined daily cash allowance based on the number of days of hospitalisation. The additional cover can also provide cash benefits in lieu of the leaves taken on account of hospitalisation.

However, loss of employment can be a matter of serious concern and should be handled appropriately. In case, the ailment impacts employability, a traditional health cover may not pro vide any benefit to make up for the loss of employment.

Critical illness policies are specifically designed to take care of such contingencies. These policies are benefit policies and the sum assured is paid as a lumpsum. Once the claim is paid, the policy ceases to exist.

A critical illness cover can be taken as a standalone policy or as a rider with a hospitalisation policy. There are various sum insured options available and one can, therefore, decide the most suitable option based on one's risk evaluation. However, it may be prudent to buy an adequate sum insured under critical illness policies.

Lastly, a wise advise. When purchasing a health insurance cover, keep a close eye on details such as coverage, exclusions, waiting period for pre-existing diseases and sub-limits on various expense heads. This will help to secure your future in critical times.

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