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Name : Balu       Country : India

Whether your employer gives you a choice of plans or you need to purchase your own coverage, it is crucial that you understand your health insurance

choices and pick the insurance that is best for you and your family.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself when choosing a health insurance plan:

How affordable is the cost of care?

What is the monthly premium I will have to pay?

Should I try to insure most of my medical expenses or just the large ones?

What deductibles will I have to pay out-of-pocket before insurance starts to reimburse me?

After I have met my deductible, what percentage of my medical expenses are reimbursed?

How much less am I reimbursed if I use doctors outside the insurance company’s network?

Does the insurance plan cover the services I am likely to use?

Are the doctors, hospitals, laboratories and other medical providers that I use in the insurance company’s network?

If I want to use a doctor outside the network, will the plan permit it?

How easily can I change primary-care physicians if I want to?

Do I need to get permission before I see a medical specialist?

What are the procedures for getting care and being reimbursed in an emergency situation, both at home or out of town?

If I have a preexisting medical condition, will the plan cover it?

If I have a chronic condition such as asthma, cancer, AIDS or alcoholism, how will the plan treat it?

Are the prescription medicines that I use covered by the plan?

Does the plan reimburse alternative medical therapies such as acupuncture or chiropractic treatment?

Does the plan cover the costs of delivering a baby?

First we, remixed old hindi film numbers, then fashion styles (Sushmita Sen teamed a saree with a spagetti in Main Hoon Na?). Food too, chinese bhel and paneer pizzas.

We also remixed financial products. Unit linked insurance is a classic example. Now, there’s one more — unit linked health insurance. That’s unit linked investments plus medical insurance for you.

What is a unit linked health insurance plan?

Simply put, it means that you can now pay one annual premium, part of which will get invested to give you returns, and the rest will be used to buy you a health insurance, more populary called mediclaim.

Mani , 41,* who lives in Delhi wants to know whether he should opt for this scheme.

Mani’s wife is 37 and they have two children, aged, 7 and 9 respectively. All these years he has been buying a medical insurance policy for his family. He would pay an annual premium of Rs 9,137 and get a cover of Rs 7 lakh for his family. This would care of all their medical needs. And since he had not made a claim yet on his policy, he had accumulated a no-claim bonus of Rs 2.31 lakh, thus increasing his total cover to Rs 9.31 lakh.

Now, he says, “I have read many articles in the newspapers recently regarding mediclaim policies and I am really confused. I have decided to discontinue my existing mediclaim policy and to go for the new unit linked health insurance policies being offered by leading life insurance companies. Here, by paying a sum of Rs 28,500 as yearly premium I can get my family insured for Rs 14 lakh (Rs 5 lakh for my wife and Rs 3 lakh each for myself and my kids). I can also make investments.”

He asks two questions:

i. Should he switch form a mediclaim policy to a unit linked health insurance plan? No

The client is advised not to go for a unit linked health insurance plan as cash less hospitalization facilities are not available.

In a volatile market situation like the prevalent market condition it is not advisable to go for a unit linked health insurance plan as mediclaim policy offers cashless hospitalization and you need not be worried about the market condition as health is very important and timely health care is absolutely essential.

ii. How will the premiums be treated, with respect to tax benefits? Will get Tax benefits

At present, the main covers they buy are for loss of ad revenue due to rainfall. They also take cover against breakdown of satellites. If there is no live feed on television, the advertisers simply do not play, the sources said. Indian insurance companies have made big payouts in 2007 for matches that were disrupted. The India-Sri Lanka match in Kolkata at the start of the year, which was washed out, and the India-Australia match in Bangalore that was cancelled after 50 overs are the two examples when the insurers had to cough up huge payouts.

Industry sources said nearly Rs 12 crore was paid out to the broadcaster — Neo Sports in India — for the two matches. Similarly, BCCI was paid nearly Rs 15 crore when the India-Pakistan match in Ireland was disrupted, they said and added that last year the claim ratio has been against the insurers.

Smaller players in the chain, like the in-stadium advertisers and local cricket associations, have also begun to purchase insurance policies. The Indian team’s sponsor — the Sahara group — has bought polices for each match, sources said.

Though cricket insurance has existed for several years, what has changed now is the innovative clauses and policies, industry observers said. Earlier, a policy would become inoperative after the first is bowled, but today’s policies are alive till last ball is bowled, although liability comes down as the overs go up, they pointed out.

Cricket may be a game of glorious uncertainties, but the rise in the number of off-the-field incidents has opened up new business opportunities for insurance companies.

The Indian cricket board’s (BCCI) stand-off with the International Cricket Council (the governing body of the game) over the three-Test ban on Harbhajan Singh has brought to fore the financial cost of such wrangles and possible protection.

Even as BCCI’s tough stance against the ban on the Indian spinner cast a cloud over the ongoing India-Australia series, insurance companies have used this as an opportunity to sell cricket bodies ‘libel and defamation policies’ that would cover future match disruptions due to such off-field incidents that have the potential to stall a match or a series.

Initially, event insurance companies were flummoxed when there was uncertainty in the air due to sledging and some controversial umpiring decisions, but they quickly spotted the big business.

Industry sources said some insurers have already approached cricket bodies with ‘libel and defamation policies’ that would cover this new variable. Big broadcasters like Neo Sports, Star Sports and Nimbus are seen as the bulk buyers of such policies as the risk is passed on from the cricket boards to these companies the moment the team arrives on the ground.

The other potential big buyers are the national cricket boards, like the Board of Control for Cricket in India, that have lot at stake if matches go haywire. Since bulk of the money from the gate collections goes to them, they have lot at stake in such events.

For broadcasters, the potential loss from match disruptions is huge, too, particularly the one-day and Twenty-20 versions for which the telecast rights have been won at astronomical prices. Sources point out that their entire revenue model through sale of airtime and cable rights will be grossly affected due to match disruptions.