Buying Health Insurance At Young Age

As per the data from the medical insurance provider, in the previous year i.e. 2013 number of people claiming money for diseases like malaria and dengue has increased. Most importantly younger people within the age group 26-35 years suffered more from these diseases as compared to elder ones. And medical insurance providers are confident that this can give rise to interest of insurance policy buyers. Young people think that, it is the elder ones aged greater than 60 or middle aged people who need hospitalization. Insurance experts feel that younger generation has weak immune system. And also excessive travelling results in exposure to unhygienic environment. There is also a 10% increase in claims from the employees of metro cities.

Standalone health insurance company Max Bupa has also seen spurt claimants suffering with dengue/malaria like diseases. Due to rising hospitalization costs, average claim amount has increased and normal amount claimed is higher than INR 40, 000.

But this doesn’t mean that young people should blindly buy health insurance policies. And before buying they should think about affordability, company cover and family cover.

If a person is ready to afford standalone health cover then they should delay in buying the policy even though they’ve received group health insurance coverage from the employer. The real value of such standalone policy arises when a person is shifting the job and moves to another employer where the real benefit of this policy comes to rescue. Another benefit of investing at a young age is cheaper medical policy and chances of suffering from lifestyle diseases are comparatively less.

Although industry experts suggest that young generation should not buy high insurance cover policies because of less premium amount involved. Instead they suggest to purchase small cover of INR 2 Lacs initially. And if need arises in the future they can always increase the coverage. There are three policy options:

1. Indemnity Based Health Insurance Policy – In this, whatever amount you spend on your illness, insurance company returns this money back.
2. Defined Benefit Policy – Money to be refunded is pre-fixed by the insurance companies.
3. Accidental death and disability insurance policy – If you’re not short of money then you should choose option-1 above. If you feel this is quite expensive then you can buy accidental and disability insurance policy.