What’s the right age to buy health insurance in India? Is 20 years the perfect age? Or 25 years go better.
Or I do not need health insurance because I am hale and hearty.
A common misconception among young people below 40 years is that they do not need to buy health insurance because they are immune to all sorts of medical problems and no severe disease can even touch them.
Precisely speaking, no one lives without getting sick. However, this is not the life that goes like this. Health issues especially due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have become a modern reality. You can have the potential to fight them, but cannot escape from them together.
A fast-paced lifestyle with unhealthy eating habits, working long hours, an increase in pollution and stress, lack of exercise increases the possibility of lifestyle-related illnesses striking at a young age. Hence, having a comprehensive health insurance policy is a necessity of the day.
And there is no pre-determined age to take a health policy. The sooner is better. When you buy health insurance at an early age, you happen to accumulate the cumulative benefits by the time you are older when you can avail of higher coverage.
Purchase Health Insurance at a Young Age
Medical inflation and medical sciences both are advancing at the same pace. If better healthcare facilities are available today, higher treatment costs you will need to pay. In some cases, treatment of certain diseases can cost your entire life savings. If you buy a health plan at a younger age, you will enjoy a lot of benefits. You will be financially safe during hospitalization due to sickness or the novel coronavirus. Further, a purchasing policy at a young age will allow you to have wide coverage at lower premium rates.
Below are factors that clarify why choosing health insurance when you are young is beneficial.
Reduced Premium Rates:
When you are young, the risk for contracting non-communicable diseases is very less. This lets you have lower premiums and reduced chances of claim rejection. Also, the insurers will offer you health insurance at a lower premium.
Waiting Period:
Generally, every insurance company includes a certain waiting period of nearly 30-90 days in their health insurance products. This is the period during which you cannot file a claim if you are diagnosed with the covered diseases. When you avail a policy early, it ensures your waiting is long over before you may actually contract any of these conditions.
Extended Coverage:
Choosing a mediclaim policy at the initial stage of adulthood allows you to have coverage for a large number of health conditions at lower premiums in comparison to the coverage for the same ailments at an older age. The cost of coverage only increases with time.
Also, you can get add-ons and enjoy higher chances of getting these add-ons since the health risk is lower. Some insurance companies offer OPD and many other procedures to youngsters that are not generally covered in a comprehensive policy. Therefore, starting early allows you to enjoy health insurance benefits for longer durations.
Lower Rejection:
During the beginning of your adulthood i.e. 20-25 years of your age, the probability of your policy rejection comes down drastically. On the other hand, the policy coverage rejection is higher for older people (after 40) as they are high-health-risk individuals.
Cumulative Bonus:
In every claim-free policy year, you are offered a No Claim Bonus (NCB). When you are young, there is an option for an extended period over which you will not need to file any claims as such your cumulative bonus will be added. This will offer you extended cover over and above your basic sum insured. This will be handy when you get old and need to file claims.
Pre-existing diseases:
Purchasing health insurance during your late 40s will put a financial burden on you while reducing the policy benefits. Most insurers in the country exclude multiple pre-existing conditions from coverage. Further, it leads to defeat the purpose of buying a health plan.
Comprehensive:
When buying a health insurance plan when young, you can avail the benefits of comprehensive coverage. Consequently, you can enjoy better security during employment and even after retirement.
Wider options:
During the beginning of adulthood, you will have a wider option to pick the most suitable health insurance products from a wide range of policies when compared with buying opting for a health plan after the 40s. You are young; you will have the freedom to select a well-suited plan that meets your medical requirements by essential parameters.
Longer duration:
Most health insurance policies are designed with an upper age limit. If you buy a plan between 20 years and 25 years of your age, you will not worry about your age limit. You will be able to reap the benefits of your policy for a longer duration of time.
Tax benefit:
Besides getting the above benefits, a youngster can gain tax benefits for a longer period if he or she buys health insurance at an early age. In general, the premium you pay against health insurance is subject to tax benefits under 80D of the Income Tax Act.
Financial planning:
A young individual not only enjoys wider policy coverage but is also able to make better financial planning. In addition to this, he or she can focus on planning other long-term investments as they already have health insurance to deal with their health emergencies.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 outbreak has prompted people to buy health insurance. After all, health insurance is important to secure both your health and wealth. With the wider benefits and coverage for coronavirus disease available for people, it is good to buy a comprehensive health insurance policy as early as possible. While choosing a policy, research well, compare different policies online and select one with minimum premium maximum coverage.