5 myths related to medical insurance

A medical insurance is a simple but powerful product. It reimburses all your expenses if you or your family members are hospitalized due to an illness or accident. You can cover all your family members in a single ‘floater’ policy and pay an annual premium to keep the policy active.

There is a wide range of options and plans available to buy your medical or health insurance. Here are a few of the most common mistakes one makes while buying a health insurance.

Myth #1: Young and healthy people need not buy health insurance

A popular belief among the youth is that they are healthy and are not going to benefit from health insurance. While age may be on their side, ignoring the future and associated health ailments is going to lead to an unprepared financial and mental shock. Given the modern lifestyle choices, quite contradictory, the youth today are more vulnerable to health ailments. Moreover, health insurance covers accidents also, which can obviously impact people of any age. It is always wise to start early while healthy to benefit from lower premium and optimum coverage.

Myth#2: All plans are the same

Quite often, people tend to buy a health insurance which their relative or friend may have bought. Does one size fit all? If no, why would the same health insurance plan be optimum for all? It is very important to buy a health insurance according to their situation and need.

The most important factors are – number and age of family members, pre-existing diseases (if any), and if the coverage has any limits on expenses.

Myth #3: It is best to buy the lowest premium plan

Of what use is a health insurance which costs a low premium but does not offer adequate coverage? Low coverage is as good as no coverage. Imagine a scenario where one suddenly contracts a serious ailment and then gets to know that, despite paying the premium for years now, he/she is not covered for that particular ailment. This is not a good situation to find yourself in. It is always advisable to compare plans and coverage before choosing the health insurance.

Myth #4: My employer offers group health cover, so I need not buy one

Many organisations offer a group health insurance cover. However, it is in your interest to buy a personal cover for your family as well. For one, you may not continue in the same job forever, so you do not want to have the uncertainty of continued cover if you switch your job. Secondly, the earlier you start your personal cover, the lower the premium and wider the diseases covered. If you start late and have a pre-existing disease by that time, many of those complications will not be covered.

Myth#5: My agent recommended plan X; might as well go with that

An agent works for a particular company and has incentives tied to the plan he sells. Is it not obvious that he/she will try to sell a plan that gives him highest incentive irrespective of how much it would benefit you? Another issue would be the lack of options as there might be a case where the company, which the agent represents, does not have a plan to suit your needs. A smarter approach would be to compare plans across various insurance companies in an online portal and choose the plan that suits you best.