This is going to be an interesting year for health insurance. While mediclaim will continue to enjoy a reasonable chunk of the market share, we will also see more product innovations particularly related to ‘health income’ type of products which provide fixed payment due to medical situations,” he says. Chak feels that this type of ‘health income’ product, which covers not only the medical expenses but also any related expenses such as transportation cost as well as post operative medical costs can be used as a supplement of mediclaim policies.

Analysts believe that in the realm of life insurance, these additions of benefits will come in the form of health rider contracts. This essentially means options to select additional health protection on top of the traditional life protection under the same policy. “ However, the customers should buy a cover for their health needs after understanding their perceived medical insurance need and not just look into the advantages churned out of higher return on their investment,” cautions C Chandreshekhar, CMO, Apollo DKV.

Another important aspect of health insurance, which many consumers choose to ignore or fail to realise is the importance of a secondary cover. Experts stress that as a long-term plan, it is strongly advisable that you should have an individual health insurance policy as well as for the family. This also becomes important as the health insurance cover, extended by the employer to its employees ,caters to the medical insurance needs of the individual and his/her family till the time he is employed with the employer.

Once he moves to a new employer, the accrued benefits and the terms and conditions change as per the insurance policy at the new employer. “Having an individual policy not only gives you the leverage of a long standing relation but also supports the waiting term requirements for various critical illness and pre-existing diseases,” says Chandreshekhar. Also, to claim the tax benefit u/s 80D up to Rs 15,000 it is important that you should take a separate policy on an above the employers provided health policy.

It is also expected that with detariffing of other portfolios, chances are high for the market forces to take care of the premium rates at which various differential services to be offered. “The consumer will have more choices, but it is always advisable that you should first have a pure health policy and then look out for a mix health insurance with unit linked features,” says Manoj Aggarwal.

So, if you’re looking for a health cover it’s pertinent that you furnish your medical details in full so as to avoid any discrepancy in the claim settlement process. After all health is wealth!

If administered properly, healthcare insurance sector has a huge potential in India and it can be leveraged to realize the dream to provide ‘health for all’. I wonder if the government can create a corpus to fund the insurance premium to be paid on behalf of the lower income groups and those below poverty line. The state governments have to do this and each state government can initiate a fund with a nominal contribution of some Rs. 50 crores and invite the industrial uni…

A US study has found that insured cancer patients live longer than the uninsured ones. Uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as those with private coverage. The study found that people without health insurance are less likely to get recommended cancer screening tests and when these patients finally do get diagnosed, their cancer is likely to have spread. For all this, uninsured are believed to account for just a fraction of US cancer deaths. It is around 4…