What to do if I do Not Have a Health Insurance Plan

Health insurance policies provide a financial security to deal with medical exigencies. With the ever changing and complex lifestyles that most of us follow, issues related with health have been on an upward rise. Therefore, it becomes vital to have a suitable health insurance plan in place, to ensure that no matter how critical your illness, it does not impair your financial independence.

With the advancement of medical facilities, health care costs also increase. The purpose of health insurance is to help you pay for the care that you receive. It protects you and your family financially in the event of an unexpected serious illness or injury that could be very expensive. In addition, you are more likely to get routine and preventive care if you have health insurance.

You need health insurance because you cannot predict what your medical bills will be in future. In some years, your costs may be low while in other years, you may have very high medical expenses. If you have health insurance, you will have peace of mind in knowing that you are protected from most of these costs. You should not wait until you or a family member becomes seriously ill to try to purchase health insurance.

Most individuals have health insurance plans provided by their employers for self and at times for the immediate family members at nominal costs. However, the coverage provided in such cases might not be sufficient to take care of the spiralling hospitalisation bills say 10 years from now. Additionally, one must note that the validity of such health policy is only limited to your work tenure with the respective organisation.

In case of any job change, retirement or loss of employment, you are left in a lurch as far as your health coverage is concerned. A decent health plan for yourself and your family taken independent of your company or your spouse’s company is a good precaution. It ensures that your assets are protected from the risk of any ill health or personal accident in the family.

Above all the facts stated, you stand to have an excellent opportunity to save income tax under section 80D. Payments made towards health insurance premiums are eligible for tax deductions under the section. However, this should not be the only reason behind making the decision of taking a personal health insurance policy. The need to improve risk management should be the driving force behind opting for a personal health insurance policy.

It is important to remember that it is always beneficial to start investing in health insurance earlier in life. With age the health related complexities increase and so do the premiums associated with the health insurance policies. Any health insurance company tend to exclude pre-existing conditions which defeat the whole purpose of buying a health insurance. Most health insurance companies have an upper age limit for the policies, which means one would have limited options after retirement.

Lastly, one must remember that there is a popular saying about health insurance: "Buy health insurance when you don't want it, because you may not get it when you want it".