My
Profile
Contact
Us06/16/2023
Do you need voluntary health insurance in addition to your employer’s medical insurance?
When you had just started earning, a PPF or a single SIP in a mutual fund, seemed enough right? But with time, you realise the importance of having a portfolio that provides you inflation-beating returns. You graduate in your choices and needs over time. Similar is the case with your employer’s medical insurance. It is a great compensation benefit and sets you on the right path at the beginning of the career, but as your liabilities and medical costs increase, there is a high probability that it will not suffice.
As per an Employee Health Benefits Survey conducted by Marsh India, 53% of the employees said that they depend on their personal finances to take care of their medical needs. They have found their employer health insurance inadequate; what about you?
Here’s how the benefits of the employer’s medical insurance fair vis a vis that of voluntary medical insurance-
Fighting the increasing medical costs much?
We spoke about inflation-beating investment returns above. What about inflation-beating medical cover? The per person increase in cost due to medical inflation is expected to grow by 12-14% i.e. double the economic inflation rate.
Most of the employee covers range from Rs 2 Lakh to Rs 3 Lakh. No wonder, about 15% of the employees exhaust their employee cover in any given year. A voluntary health insurance will provide you with an added cushion to absorb these costs and limit your out of pocket expenses.
Does your employer’s insurance give you peace of mind?
Provided that only 44% employers actually provide employee health insurance as a benefit, do you have a safety net if you get employed by the remaining 56%? With voluntary health insurance, you are at peace knowing that you and your family are sufficiently protected.
In case of a downturn in business, your employer may end up reducing your medical cover or introducing co-pay (wherein you will have to pay a % of the claim yourself). And let’s go further and look at retirement. Once you retire, due to old age and propensity towards diseases, it is very difficult to buy a new health insurance policy. Having a voluntary health insurance today will ease out these ripples in the future.
Can you customise your employer’s insurance?
Yes, your employer medical insurance may cover your spouse, children and parents in addition to you. But can you tweak it to suit your requirements better? For example, if your family has a history of critical illnesses, can you ask for a critical illness cover from your employer? Often, you can’t.
Since you are buying a voluntary health insurance in addition to the employer’s, you can buy a policy that fits your needs exactly and has benefits over and above that of the employer’s. Be it critical illness, OPD cover or specific pre-existing diseases, buy what you need!
Voluntary insurance comes with many benefits
Under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act 1961, you can claim a tax deduction for the premium paid for your medical insurance. Further, under the No-Claim Bonus benefit, you can even have your insurance cover doubled for every claim-free year with no additional premium! *
Voluntary health insurance also comes with lifelong renewability. Yes, there are many benefits of an employee medical insurance, like no premium or waiting periods, no medical check-ups etc. But do you see the longevity in these benefits? Hardly.
You can buy another base medical insurance or a super top-up medical insurance, over and above the employer’s. We recommend you buy the latter because super top-up insurance proves to be cheaper than base insurance since it comes with an aggregate deductible declaration. Using hypothetical figures- it says, that if you are buying a medical cover of Rs 10 Lakh then the first Rs 3 Lakh will be borne by you, either out of your pocket or via another medical insurance (employer’s). Hence, the premium that you pay for the Rs 10 Lakh cover is significantly lesser than that paid for a base medical insurance without a deductible.
Head over here to see the voluntary health insurance options customised specially for you.
Source:
Already a Member?
Bought a policy on BenefitsCircle? Login to your account to manage information, submit claims or check policy status from anywhere in the world, at any time.
Find answers
Search through our frequently asked questions
- What can Health Insurace Cover?
- Availability of Cashless Hospitalization