Mr.Karthik is a 33 year old IT professional. He had bought a health insurance plan for Rs.3 lakh when his son was born 3 years back. Plan extends coverage for all three of them-himself, wife and his only son. Suddenly, he met with an accident and got admitted to the hospital. His medical bill shot up to 5 lakh. He had to bear the expenses out of his pocket as he had no sufficient health cover.

Like Karthik, there are many people who forget to consider reviewing their health insurance needs year on year. There are many routine changes in our life that calls for reviewing health insurance requirement. It’s important to put in some efforts to understand such triggers.

Few Reasons for Periodic Review of your Health Insurance Needs

• Healthcare Inflation: Healthcare inflation is twice that of general inflation in the country. Soaring medical cost rising at the rate of around 20% can put you under financial stress in case of unexpected medical emergency. Rising cost of healthcare inflation triggers a need for upgrading your health insurance coverage. Hence, periodic review of health insurance need is an essential thing to bring it in line with an expected cost in the near future.

• Profession and Income Changes: As and when you climb up a ladder in your professional career, it’s crucial for you to review health insurance needs. Your employer-sponsored mediclaim may not get revised. Hence, it’s time to realize the need of more coverage as you are growing age-wise, family-wise as well as career-wise. It’s good to reconsider the option of enhancing health cover when you can afford it and also in a position to avoid circumstances that can put you in medical debt. It saves you some tax too!

• Change in lifestyle and personal position: Change in lifestyle triggers the need for review of your health insurance. With the changing lifestyle your preference of healthcare services may change. Many people choose to have luxury healthcare services with advanced technologies. Critical illnesses are increasing with the lifestyle changes happening in the generation which may require a treatment from hospitals abroad. Such quality healthcare can be availed only if you have an adequate coverage.

When it comes to health insurance need, it keeps changing with the change in your personal position. Let’s say you are single, young and healthy; you may not need too much of health cover as you only need to think about yourself. Once you get married, your priorities in life will change. You have to look for a policy that can cover you both with a sufficient sum insured. Likewise, when you start planning for a child, you may have to again enhance your coverage so that your maternity expenses and child’s health is covered. As the responsibilities keep falling on your shoulder, you should take a quick glance at your health insurance portfolio to ensure you and your loved ones are adequately insured. Likewise, cover can be reduced for divorcee.

• Change in Health: Your health insurance requirement depends on your medical history, current health condition and family health history. With the growing age, your health tends to deplete. As you grow older you are more prone to diseases like diabetes, thyroid and cardiovascular diseases, etc. especially if you have a family history of such diseases. The city that you reside and work environment and many other factors will have an influence on your health too. You may have to avail additional riders with the changing health condition. Moreover, with the growing age getting a more comprehensive plan is a costly affair. Hence, it’s important to keep reviewing your health condition as well as healthcare need time to time.

Conclusion

On a closing note, the health cover that you avail in your initial days cannot always be an adequate cover for you. As you grow older and evolve as a better husband, father and son, your life priorities do change which triggers a need for you to revisit your health insurance portfolio. It’s crucial to review your health coverage periodically based on affordability, lifestyle, income change and inflation etc. It’s important to review and revise your health insurance coverage to bring them in line with your present life scenario.