How to plan health related expenses

Jawahar parents are suffering from diabetes from a long time and they are not insured. So jawahar who has more chances to be a diabetic because of the hereditary. So he needs to do 2 things. First, he purchased a health cover of Rs. 5 lakh. Second he purchased a fixed deposit with the bank of Rs. 5 lakh to meet the expenses of the disease of his parents.

Where in another case, Sharma did not purchase any medicliam for him or his family. Suddenly Sharma’s wife got some heart problem and diagnosed with 1 vein blocked of heart. Now he cannot purchase a mediclaim or health insurance because the mediclaim companies don’t entertain with existing disease. In some cases the insurance companies don’t cover some disease in 2-3 years’ time frame.

Every case is different from other. There are no such healthy foods as well as fast living, which harm the health heavily. Moreover the medical expenses now days increased very much. It can reduce the savings in huge if some problem arises. So these steps can help you in these situations.

Health Insurance

Health insurance is the best option to meet any unexpected health expenses. The premium one need to pay is very nominal and it covers almost all the disease (expect eyesight and teeth or some more may be). It covers almost 70-75% hospital expenses depends upon case to case.

In the case of salaried person, health insurance may be provided by the employer. So in this case, the employee can also cover his parents too with the policy by paying a nominal premium.

Cover to buy

This depends on case to case. This can be decided by the income and responsibilities. For the young people 20-28, one can start health insurance of Rs. 2 lakh and can increase the insured sum as the age increases. For the people of high worth, a health insurance with insured sum of 5 lakh is ideal. For a young family where husband, wife and 2 children, a sum insured of 3 to 5 lakh with the family floater scheme can be called good.

Family floater is the scheme in which a couple and 2 children can be covered under one scheme and one or two or all can use the sum insured against this policy. But for the higher age group, individual health policy is suggested compare to family floater.

Add-on cover

Add-on cover works in serious and critical illness and it gives onetime benefit. It is suggested for the people of high income as well as the people whose parents have some serious hereditary disease like cancer or heart problems. But add on covers are only for the people who have health insurance first.

Emergency funds

One needs to maintain the emergency funds too along with health insurance to meet some unexpected illness. This can work with elderly parents or to some other family members. Emergency funds size may be big or small, depends upon the income, but it should maintain. The big reason is some diseases are not covered and some half covered by the mediclaim. Second in the case of hospitalization, one can around 70-75% of expenses. Third, some disease is the kind of no hospitalization but full of expenses.

One can make a fixed deposit against the emergency funds or for the people with low income; one can make o recurring deposit or systematic investment plan for the emergency funds.

Treatment	Cost 2012	Cost 2007
Cataract	24000	16000
Angiography	22000	14000
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft(CAGB)	235000	165000
Appendectomy	42000	28000
Heamorrhiodectomy(Piles)	35000	21000
Angioplasty(PTCA) with 2 stents	245000	150000
Cholecystectomy( Gall Blander removal)	52000	32000
TURP( Prostate Surgery)	62000	37000

Age group	Sum covered	Insurance premium
30-35	300000	4000
36-45	300000	4500
46-50	300000	7000
51-60	300000	10000

In family floater cases the health insurance premium app. For a couple and 2 children are as follows.

Age group	Sum covered	Insurance premium
30-35	300000	8000
36-45	300000	9500
46-50	300000	14500
51-60	300000	18000