It feels strange to give financial advice,\u00a0considering\u00a0that for\u00a0a\u00a0large part for my early and mid-career life, I spent money like it\u00a0was going\u00a0out of fashion. I invested in the usual LICs and PPFs\u00a0because I had to, but I don\u2019t think I had a single other financial instrument. My mother would nag, \u201cGet yourself a medical insurance. You are young, your premiums will start young.\u201d\u00a0The younger me was an idiot\u00a0and she spent the money on books instead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first time I bought health insurance, it was not for me.\u00a0It was for my grandmother as her 60th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday gift. After all, she was old. She needed health insurance. My mind hadn\u2019t yet computed that one day, I too would be older and may need medical cover.\u00a0Frankly the paperwork terrified me. I held off buying health insurance till the introduction of cashless\u00a0payment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most of us working professionals, a medical cover from the company\u00a0has been\u00a0the norm. But\u00a0my suggestion would be to invest in\u00a0a\u00a0separate medical cover\u00a0and let it build up for you\u00a0so that when you do need to use it, you have built up a good no claims corpus. With the cost of healthcare going up, falling ill has become a luxury. Those of us who have been following the\u00a0current\u00a0crisis and hospital bills that run\u00a0into lakhs have an added impetus to stay indoors and\u00a0stay\u00a0well. And\u00a0for those of us with no medical cover, the horror of falling ill is not just\u00a0about\u00a0the physical impact of the virus but\u00a0also the\u00a0financial impact.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now, we don\u2019t even know what the long-term impacts of the illness are. Therefore, the need for health insurance is even greater. As a KPMG insights article points out<\/strong><\/a>, \u201cThe pandemic itself may cause more people to reconsider their individual health insurance needs. In the wake of the SARS epidemic, for example, we saw a temporary spike in critical illness policy sales in Asia. We may see a similar phenomenon post-coronavirus, with rising sales of health insurance, critical illness and even life cover across the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the new normal becomes the gig, jobs with health cover become rarer. The need to start early and have a health policy that grows with you and your health needs becomes very important. Earlier, there was a one size fits all policy. Now things are much more flexible and customer focused. With health costs on a rise by at least 15% annually<\/a>, falling ill without health insurance seems like a very risky proposition. So which health policy is the best in the country? The best health policy is one that matches your needs. Jot down what you want from a health policy, and tick off the boxes as you make your choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like everything\u00a0else, the new normal in healthcare will be different too. I see many of us opting for tele-medicine. I already see many of my friends getting more comfortable talking to their doctors\u00a0on a video call. I also predict major changes in the way health cover operates. I see it getting more simplified, and easier to understand\u00a0as more people opt for health insurance cover. I see more of on-demand health insurance\u00a0and I see health covers\u00a0adapt to meet this new normal. I see more\u00a0app-based\u00a0health covers\u00a0with consumer-friendly interfaces replacing\u00a0the impersonal call centres.\u00a0These apps will\u00a0integrate all your health history in one place, allow you to get your prescriptions,\u00a0enable\u00a0you to buy medicines from online pharmacies, and more.\u00a0It would be\u00a0a\u00a0gateway for all your health needs,\u00a0online prescriptions, monitoring your reports, and order medicines online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n