Health insurance is considered as an essential tool for individuals and families to protect their health and well-being, access preventive care, and to manage the costs of medical care.
Women require regular check-ups and screenings for conditions such as breast and cervical cancer, osteoporosis, and reproductive health issues. They experience health issues that require specialised care, such as reproductive health care, prenatal care, and menopause management.
On this International Women’s Day, we tried to understand basic parameters women can look at while opting for a health insurance product.
Experts feel health insurance provides financial protection, access to preventative care, and can help to reduce health care disparities.
They say women require specific health care services throughout their lives, such as reproductive health services like PAP smears, mammograms and other gynaecological examinations. These services can be costly, and without insurance, many women may delay or forgo necessary care.
Ajay Shah, director and head, retail, Care Health Insurance, and Dr. Bhabatosh Mishra, director, underwriting and claims at Niva Bupa Health Insurance, shared tips for women to consider while choosing a health insurance policy.
Tips By Ajay Shah, director and head, retail, Care Health Insurance;
Evaluate higher sum insured options: With the constantly increasing cost of medical treatment, it has become imperative for all to have a health insurance plan that offers sufficient coverage at the time of need. As women are getting financially independent, it is even crucial for them to make such wise decisions.
A comprehensive and sufficient health cover will go a long way in safeguarding them against the many unforeseen ailments that may arise in the future. Many times, the treatment and recovery process for conditions such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension, asthma can be long tailed, expensive and mentally and physically exhausting.
Patients who lack access to appropriate health cover for such illnesses may be forced to bear the entire cost of treatment themselves. Therefore, putting immense pressure on them and their finances.
Comprehensive coverage: Medical insurance provides a safety net for individuals by providing access to quality healthcare. It does so, by alleviating the financial burden arising at the time of hospitalisation due to a medical condition.
Comprehensive health insurance policies also cover expenses for day care treatment, domiciliary expenses, ambulance charges, pre and post hospitalisation expenses and so on. Moreover, most comprehensive health covers also include maternity care which provides for prenatal visits, delivery, and postpartum care. If you are planning to start a family soon, it is essential for you to verify if your health insurance policy covers maternity care.
Increase in sum insured: Contrary to popular belief, not making a claim on your health insurance policy in a year can also be advantageous. Features like Cumulative Bonus and Cumulative Bonus Super can help increase your Sum Insured to 600% of the total coverage. This means, if your initial coverage was for Rs. 10 lakhs, you can potentially increase it to Rs. 70 lakhs within 7 years, irrespective of the fact that you have made a claim or not. This will ensure that you have sufficient coverage for expensive medical treatments in the future.
Automatic recharge of sum insured: With the busy and stressful lifestyles that many women lead today, there is an increased risk of adverse effects on health. To address such unforeseen situations, some health insurance policies now offer the feature of automatic recharge of the sum insured. This means that if you exhaust your coverage amount due to a claim or multiple claims in a policy year, your policy will automatically renew or recharge your sum insured, allowing you to make additional claims if necessary in the same year. This is a valuable benefit as it ensures that you have ongoing coverage against unexpected health emergencies, even if you have already made a claim/claims.
Review policy documents and make cost comparisons: Prior to purchasing a health insurance policy, it is essential to carefully review the exclusions and benefits that are included in the policy. It is important to ensure that the insurer has a wide network of healthcare providers that align with your specific needs, including women specialty hospitals, availability of female doctors & specialists. In addition to this, it is advisable to compare the multiple health insurance policies for their premiums and find the one that best suits your specific requirements and budget.
Dr. Bhabatosh Mishra, director, underwriting and claims at Niva Bupa Health Insurance added that women should buy health insurance for the same reasons as men. They should therefore consider the same factors as men while buying health insurance.
According to to him, the only difference comes while evaluating certain benefits such as;
Maternity Benefits
While men can buy maternity too for their family members, one needs to check whether the maternity benefits provide postnatal coverage along with vaccinations coverage or not.
Women specific disease coverage
The policy should provide coverage for women specific diseases such as Polycystic Ovarian Disease. Additionally it should provide cover for critical illness. CI cover is gender neutral. It covers cancers irrespective of whether it’s in men or women.
Preventive or annual health check ups
One should ensure that women specific tests like PAP smear, Mammogram etc. are covered as part of the policy.
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