Importance of health insurance for senior citizens during a pandemic

0
1491

Getting insurance is your responsibility to your family and loved ones. You may hate it but it is your responsibility – Jeremiah Say

Covid-19 has impacted people with every age group. i.e. children, adults, and senior citizens. The most impacted age group is senior citizens. Some studies have shown that people with higher age have more risk of getting infected, Moreover, Senior citizens having pre-medical conditions are also at higher risk. Chances of requiring hospitalization are greater for them.

We all know medical expenses are increasing day by day in today’s world. Senior citizens are retired people having zero or low income. So, if they don’t have any reserves accumulated or are not having insurance or adequate insurance, it gets difficult to manage the hospital expenses.

Senior citizens are pillars of our family. They need to be protected and insurance can be helpful in that.

Many insurance companies are providing insurance covers for senior citizens, which are known as “Exclusive senior citizens health plan”. These plans provide many benefits like Emergency ambulance charges, ICU charges, medical practitioner’s charges, organ donor charges, etc. Moreover, free check-ups, cashless home healthcare, mental healthcare, air ambulance, etc. are also provided.

But these health plans have some limitations which are :

1. Co-pay, Which means policyholders have to pay a part of medical expenses on their own.

2. Long waiting period. In most cases, some diseases or conditions get covered after several months only.

3. Higher premium. As risk at higher age is higher for diseases, Premium for insurance is also higher.

4. Pre-medical cost has to be borne by the proposer. It gets reimbursed only if the proposer is accepted.

Some insurance policies which are designed exclusively for Covid-19 are the Corona Rakshak policy and corona kavach policy. Corona Rakshak policy has benefits of the larger sum insured and 100% of sum assured if covid positive and requiring hospitalization for 72 hours. Whereas, Corona Kavach policy covers 9.5 months of protection against one-time payment. So, these policies are beneficial no doubt, But they do have their limitations and one most important limitation is they don’t provide protection to senior citizens, as people with the age of more than 65 are not included under these policies.

So, by considering all these things two things are clear: One thing is reserves have to be maintained to meet future contingencies. Adults can also help their elders with that. Moreover, They can also give the best gift to their parents or grandparents in the form of insurance. And, Insurance plans do provide tax benefits also in most cases. And secondly, Insurance has to be considered as a necessity and not a want, In these times.

So, If you are also having age between 18-60, then it’s time to get more responsible for your and your family’s health and life.

Follow and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn&Twitter