Tag: Health insurance

Ayushman Bharat Health Insurance for Senior Citizens

AYUSHMAN BHARAT HEALTH INSURANCE FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

Ayushman Bharat is a government-sponsored health insurance scheme in India that provides free healthcare to citizens with a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card. While it primarily targets the most vulnerable population, senior citizens can also benefit under certain conditions.

Here’s how senior citizens can access Ayushman Bharat:

  1. BPL Card: If a senior citizen has a BPL card, they are eligible for Ayushman Bharat benefits. The BPL card indicates that the individual belongs to a low-income family and is eligible for government assistance.
  2. State-Specific Schemes: Some states have implemented additional schemes under Ayushman Bharat that specifically target senior citizens. These schemes may have different eligibility criteria and benefits. It’s essential to check with the state government or local health authorities for details.
  3. Government Hospitals and Private Empaneled Hospitals: Ayushman Bharat provides coverage for treatment in government hospitals and private hospitals that are empaneled under the scheme. Senior citizens can avail themselves of free healthcare services at these facilities.

Benefits of Ayushman Bharat for Senior Citizens:

  • Free healthcare: Ayushman Bharat covers the cost of hospitalization and treatment for a wide range of illnesses and procedures. This can be a significant relief for senior citizens who often face high medical expenses.
  • Cashless treatment: In most cases, Ayushman Bharat allows for cashless treatment, eliminating the need for upfront payments. This can be especially beneficial for senior citizens who may have limited financial resources.
  • Comprehensive coverage: The scheme covers a wide range of medical procedures, including surgeries, diagnostics, and medications. This ensures that senior citizens have access to the necessary healthcare services.

Important Considerations:

  • Eligibility criteria: Eligibility for Ayushman Bharat depends on having a BPL card or satisfying the specific criteria of state-specific schemes. It’s important to verify eligibility before seeking treatment.
  • Empaneled hospitals: Not all hospitals are empaneled under Ayushman Bharat. It’s essential to check with the state government or local health authorities for a list of empaneled hospitals in your area.
  • State-specific variations: The benefits and coverage under Ayushman Bharat may vary from state to state. It’s crucial to understand the specific details of the scheme in your region.

Disclaimer:  Every effort has been made to avoid errors or omissions in this material. In spite of this, errors may creep in. Any mistake, error or discrepancy noted may be brought to our notice which shall be taken care of in the next edition. In no event the author shall be liable for any direct, indirect, special or incidental damage resulting from or arising out of or in connection with the use of this information. 

Insurance Companies Settled 93 Percent Cases Of COVID-19

By bringing the COVID epidemic under the purview of health insurance, the central government has given great relief to the people. Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, COVID has been brought under health insurance, government insurance companies have filed COVID insurance claims worth Rs 17,537 crore till December 2021.

Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad told the Lok Sabha that as on December 31, 2021, 14.92 lakh insurance claims have been received by public sector insurance companies related to COVID, out of which 93 per cent claims have been settled. He also said that despite the additional burden of claims related to COVID, the overall profit of the public sector companies during the period of one and a half financial years after the onset of the epidemic was registered at Rs 4,101.34 crore.

To Save Tax, Make Investment Strategy Like This At Last Moment

You can save tax by investing here

ELSS: Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) is also known as Tax Saving Mutual Fund. You can invest in it through fund houses. On this one can save tax up to 1.50 lakh annually under section 80C of Income Tax Act. But, next time you should consider investing in Systematic Investment Plan (SIP). It gives better returns along with tax savings.

Health Insurance: You can claim tax exemption up to Rs 25,000 on health insurance premiums under 80D. One can get an additional discount of up to Rs 25,000 on health insurance if the parents are within 60 years of age. If the age of the parents is above 60 years, then you can claim additional exemption up to Rs. 50,000.

Life Insurance: One can save tax up to Rs 1.50 lakh on premium of life insurance under section 80C of Income Tax Act. It helps in meeting the financial needs of the family after you.

Bank FD of five years: This is also a good option to save tax. For this you can open FD account in any bank or post office.

Health Insurance Premium Will Be Expensive in The New Year

In the new year 2022, private hospitals are preparing to increase the treatment and package charges by up to 10 percent, which will also affect your health insurance premium. The increase in hospital charges will have more impact in the group insurance premium that is renewed every year and insurance companies will increase the group health premium as soon as the agreement with the hospitals is renewed. However, this will not affect the premium of the individual health policy for the time being. 

Individual policy premium will not increase

IRDAI’s approval is necessary for increasing the premium of individual health policy, but under the guise of increase in Corona’s claim, companies are also demanding to increase the premium in individual health policy. Insurance companies have received claims of 25 thousand crore rupees related to Corona. Some companies have increased the premium and some are in the process of increasing it.

Will there be an impact on term plans as well?

The demand for term insurance plans has increased during the Corona period. In such a situation, companies will have to increase strictness for underwriting of term products giving pure protection and companies may have to increase rates due to increase in reinsurance prices. Along with income proof, now companies can also ask for bank statement. In addition, the conditions for complete medical examination may also apply for acceptance of the proposal. Actually, reinsurance companies are increasing the rates with more claims than expected. In such a situation, term plans can also be expensive in the coming times.

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PhonePe Launches Health Insurance Cover At Just Rs 999. Know Details Here

PhonePe has launched a health insurance plan for Rs 999. The company’s latest health insurance plan Health@999 will meet the needs of first time health insurance buyers. Especially young people who are buying their first health insurance cover to save themselves from the cost of treatment. The latest offering is a first of its kind in the Indian digital payments space.

According to the firm, it provides comprehensive health coverage at an affordable cost. For this, the user has to provide only the documents like name, age, gender and email id to buy the policy.

How to get policy

1.) Log in to the PhonePe app and select the Insurance tab

2.) Click on Health@999 Icon

3.) Choose your age and the amount of health insurance cover required

4.) Add your basic details like name, gender, date of birth and email

5.) Click on Pay to get your policy instantly

PhonePe’s Total Payment Value (TPV) of transactions on its platform grew by 23.3 per cent to Rs 9,21,674 crore in the July-September 2021 quarter. While the number of transactions increased by 33.6 percent to 5265 million. Also, money transfer with UPI and merchant payments achieved a new milestone of 200 crore transactions.

Want to Take Health Insurance Cover for Your Parents During COVID-19? Here are the Options

The COVID 19 is wreaking havoc in India. Not only physically and mentally, but financially too. Medicines and oxygen are costing much more, and hospitalization expenses too have gone up manifold. We have been getting many queries on how insurance cover can be increased or taken, especially for parents.

Those in formal employment may have parental cover, but this is limited to Rs 3-5 lakh and the risk of not having the cover due to unemployment remains. The self-employed, of course, need to fend for their families as they do not have the benefit of group covers.

Importance of health cover reinforced

For a long time, health insurance was looked upon as an unnecessary expense and people did not look beyond their employer provided cover.  Over the last one year, with COVID-19 affecting the population, individuals are scampering to increase the health cover for self and parents. The high cost of policies and the complexity of the terms are making it difficult to do so.

Consider this: the premium of a base senior citizen policy of Rs 5 lakhs is between Rs 20,000 -27,000 per annum. It costs Rs 50,000 per annum for a Rs 5 lakh cover for both parents. It is high and, at the same time, the cover will not suffice for illnesses such as cancer. Given the cost of medical expenses, a cover of Rs 10-20 lakhs along with critical illness is a must. But this doesn’t come cheap.

In all financial products, there are economical options available and but these are most often not promoted. The same is the case with health insurance.

Super top up plans have been around for long, but did you know that they are a cost-effective way of taking high cover at very low cost? A super top-up plan of Rs 20 lakhs costs Rs 10,000 per year, for individuals in 61-65 years age group! Much more affordable than Rs 25,000 premium, that too for Rs 5 lakhs cover only.

A super top-up plan works similar to a health policy and covers hospitalization but comes with a deductible. The deductible is amount which needs to be paid by the insured for any claim. In case of super top up, once the claims at an aggregate level cross the deductible limit, the claim would be paid by the insurance company. For example, in case of a Rs 20 lakh policy with Rs 3 lakhs deductible and 2 claims of Rs 2 lakhs each, the first claim would need to be borne by the insured. In the second claim, Rs 1 lakh will need to paid by the individual as it is within the deductible limit of Rs 3 lakhs and the balance Rs 1 lakh will be paid by the insurance company. Any furthur claims will also be covered.

Most policies offer sum assured between Rs 5 to Rs 50 lakhs with a deductible ranging from Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs. There are covers of Rs 1 crore with higher deductible of Rs 10- 20 lakhs available too. As the deductible increases, the premium falls. For example, Rs 20 lakh policy for a 61-year-old, with Rs 3 lakhs deductible costs at Rs 10,000 p.a. but with Rs 5 lakhs deductible costs at Rs 8000 p.a. A Rs 1 crore policy with Rs 5 lakhs deductible for a 61-year-old costs at Rs 15,000 only!

Wide coverage of super top-ups

Most Super top up plans also cover day procedures including chemotherapy and come with benefits like restoration benefit. Some also have a critical illness cover built in and can be taken for periods of 2 or 3 years. Super top up plans can be taken as family floaters and no claim bonus also applies. However, it is important for policyholders to check the exclusions, waiting periods for illness & pre-existing diseases and if there are any sub limits especially on room rent while evaluating different plans.

Like term plans provide high cover at a low price to cover life, super top-up policies should be chosen for health insurance says Srivathsan, managing director, Intent Health Technologies. According to Srivatshan, it is not necessary to have a base policy in order to purchase a super top-up plan. And this is the biggest benefit of the super top-up plan. There is no need to buy a base policy which is more expensive and has a lower cover.

While employer cover can be used to cover the deductible amount, it is best to set aside a “health fund” for that amount. The health fund can be invested in a combination of low duration and short duration debt funds. This along with the emergency fund will take care of the deductible expenses.

A super top up with health fund should provide protection for major health expenses but buying it early is better as it means lower costs and continued cover. Don’t wait for parents to retire to start the cover. The chances of rejection are higher at older age due to the advent of medical issues. These covers are available for age band 91 days to 65 years.

Being proactive with physical health translates to better health. The same applies to finances. Be proactive and not reactive.

 
(The article is posted from Money Control without any modification.)

Points to be noted while taking Health Insurance – Need of the Hour – COVID Times

  1. First of all, think whether it is really necessary for you or your family. Generally, it depends upon whether there are any serious illness issues. But, in unfortunate times, health insurance really comes to rescue you.
  2. Now, think whether you want to take a Family plan (Floater) or Individual plan. Unless there are serious issues to a single person in the family, it is advised to opt for Family Floater (single premium – multiple persons).
  3. Claim Settlement Ratio (CSR) – It is the ratio of total claims settled to total claims received. Higher the CSR, better the policy. Not only the no. of claims, but also the Amount of claims is to be seen because, the number can be manipulated by processing large no. of small amount claims. The golden rule is “> 90% “
  4. The association between the insurance company and the hospitals we regularly visit or nearby our locality is to be taken into account. This helps in settlement of bills directly by the insurance company.
  5. The policy should not be much rigid and limited to specific treatments/expenses. It should be flexible with any disease/treatment and should also be covering miscellaneous charges.
  6. In case we have any pre-existing disorders like Diabetes/BP/Thyroid/Asthma etc., the policy should take effect within less waiting time (Because in such cases pre-existing illness, insurance companies generally take liability if the treatment/expenditure is incurred after certain period from insurance commencement date)
  7. Non-Claim Bonus benefits should also be taken into account. These are the concessions/discounts we get while renewal in case we don’t claim any insurance for the existing policy.
  8. Sum assured is to be calculated depending upon the family health conditions and surround ding health environment.
  9. It is advisable, in the present case scenario (COVID Times), to refer to websites like Policy bazaar/Cover fox etc. in order to get competitive quotes, compare policies, talk to executives.
  10. Don’t forget to obtain 80D certificate. Read carefully and disclose every detail because principle of ” Uberrimae Fidei” is inbuilt in an Insurance contract.