Unsafe insurance

Warning: medical health cover might be injurious to your wealth

Health insurance is meant to safeguard us from the high cost of medical expenses occasioned by illness or injury, but how safe is the safety net of health cover for your financial health? And the answer is, it’s not very safe at all.

The unhygienic conditions of free state-run clinics and hospitals, being more likely to worsen the health of the patient than improve it, the average Indian is left to the untender mercies of the private sector for healthcare, and for the insurance that supposedly will pick up the price tab for it, which can be horrendously costly as most hospitals are moneymaking machines thinly described as medical centres.

Mindful of this, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) recently removed the age limit for health insurance, as well as the clause regarding pre-existing conditions.

Despite such a relaxation of rules to favour the insured, health insurance remains a dicey business. In a recent case, when the head of a family sought to renew his family policy online which covered him, his wife and five-year-old daughter, he found that the premium charged had increased by almost 15%.

When the agent was questioned about the increase, the answer was that on the renewal link provided there was an option to choose a higher cover for a higher premium. The insuree said he hadn’t opted for this, but was informed that it had been selected for him by default, this apparently being standard practice, which could better be described as sharp practice.

Thanks to the intervention of the agent a new cover note was issued. This had the correct premium, but had only the name of the husband as the person insured, with no mention of the wife and daughter.
The devil is said to lie in the details. In the case of health insurance devilry, unintended or otherwise, can lie in the fine print which needs to be scrutinised, if necessary with a magnifying glass, to ensure that there are no unpleasant surprises lurking there.

Health insurance? It might more aptly be called unsurance.