One of the most significant concerns that most people, especially the poor and those in the rural areas face are that of healthcare. While the government is trying to bring out a lot of schemes concerning health care as well as health insurance, there is still a long way to go. When it comes to seniors, a notable population of this country, the matter becomes even more slightly important. With age, it is but natural, lots of health issues come up. And mostly, we all prefer to take treatment from private hospitals, instead of the government ones, due to many relevant factors.
The cost of healthcare, especially in private hospitals is not cheap, and this is where the importance of health insurance comes in. If a person has health insurance, then one can rest assured that it can cover most of the illnesses and expenses. However, there are of course many limitations of health insurance as well which you need to be aware of. If you would like to know about a few myths about health insurance, you can check it out here.
Tax benefits of health insurance
One good news is that the Government of India has announced in this year’s financial budget that senior citizens will have tax exemption on health insurance premium and medical expenses, under Section 80 D up to INR 80, 000. Apart from this, seniors (aged 60 years and above) and very senior citizens (aged 80 years and above), can claim tax benefits, up to INR 80,000 and 1 lakh respectively, for medical expenses incurred on severe illnesses. Even, if you are taking a single premium health insurance policy for more than a year, you can claim the benefit proportionately each of the years. Catch up on our budget benefits article here.
Factors to consider for health insurance
Especially concerning seniors, many factors need to be taken into account while finding health insurance. The significant things that need to be checked out while taking a health insurance policy are:
- Cashless hospitalisation – applicable or not; this is very important
- Hospitalization expenses – whether medical bills and room charges are covered or not
- Day care expenses if availed due to any necessity, is covered or not
- Ambulance charges will be paid or not
- Pre-existing diseases – Each insurance provider has certain limitations in this, so depending on your pre-existing illnesses, pick and choose the most suitable one
- Whether any medical test is required to be done, before taking out the policy. If yes, the details on that need to be checked out.
- Details on higher coverage, premiums, and additional benefits, if any
- How and what their settlement procedures are?
Each of these factors may play an essential role in your choice of health insurance policy. Ask all relevant questions, clear your doubts, compare with a few insurance providers, and only then venture into the health insurance.
A safe bet
If you find that doing all this by yourself, seems to be a challenging task, then this is where we Samarth community can help you out. You may please visit this link on our site to know more about what all options are available for you in terms of health insurance. Our mission is to make all things relevant to seniors, available in one place. As such, since health insurance is one of the important things that most senior citizens would like to opt for, we have tried to bring it to your doorstep.
The link asks you to provide your age in a text box, and once you do so, it provides you with a complete list of available policies from various providers, in a friendly tabular format. The table covers options like sum covered, family members included, what options are covered or not, etc. There are options suggested, and you may even get to compare the policies to pick the best deal for you.
