Buying health insurance well in time means paying lesser premium and saves your panic at the eleventh hour when diabetes knocks at your door
While diabetes once used to be the disease of the old, it has now become a disease affecting people in their youth. India is home to 6.5 crore diabetics and 5 crore pre-diabetics. And, till the time the remaining 56% people discover that they are suffering from diabetes, it is too late.
Developing diabetes early in life severely impacts one’s work which eventually takes a toll on finances. The burden of treatment, rising medical costs and the fear of losing one’s hard earned income due to health complications can leave one medically and financially wobbly. Diabetes also increases vulnerability towards additional complications like heart disease, strokes, kidney failure, eye disease and foot problems.
According to industry estimates, In India, individuals and their families use household income to bear an approximate of 85-95% of healthcare costs, since most people are not insured. With insurance, the average claim size of a diabetes policy is Rs 50,000. The cost of a 5-year diabetes treatment is Rs 1,50,000 and while a 10-year treatment will come to Rs 4,00,000. The average monthly expense for a diabetic costs around Rs 5,000 – Rs 9,000, which excludes the actual treatment (doctor’s consultations, medical tests and treatment costs). In such a scenario, additional complications like heart disease, strokes or kidney failure happen oriving to be costlier.
A standard medical policy sometimes does not offer adequate cover for the advanced treatments. Late diagnosis of the disease leads to many complications. Buying health insurance well in time means paying lesser premium and saves your panic at the eleventh hour when diabetes knocks at your door. A healthy person can buy a health insurance cover of Rs 7,000 – Rs 9,000 per year as compared to Rs 18,000 – Rs 20,000 per year for a diabetic patient.
Look for a policy that covers not only the treatment, but also the cost of hospitalisation, a policy that has a large network of affiliate hospitals which will also provide reimbursement if you seek medical care outside of this network. Additionally, there are policies that also cover non-diabetic health issues that arise while treating diabetes.
The writer is senior executive director, Star Health and Allied Insurance
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