How was health and life insurance useful in Covid 19.
Answers
Answer:
if you will sick from covid 19 the insurance will pay the bill to hospital for covid 19
Answer:
This is an example for the Usefulness of health and life insurance during the pandemic of Covid-19.
If there’s anything that the past year has taught us, it is that adequate insurance is an absolute need-to-have, and isn’t something that we can postpone or ignore. |
At the end of 2020, Annika had been working for over 8 years. With everything that the year had brought and the toll it had taken, she decided to take a career break. A much-warranted, needed and earned break! By February 2021, she moved on from her corporate job. And, with this, she also lost her benefits.
What hit us in April 2021 was unexpected in the most horrible way. There is almost no family in the country that was not affected by the second wave of COVID. Some, of course, had it far worse than others. Annika had three of her family members hospitalized for low oxygen levels - these were hospitalizations that ran into a couple of weeks. Her husband works with a leading multinational and has about Rupees 5 lakh of health insurance that covers all his family members. In these circumstances, that insurance was far too less a cover to protect multiple members. The family had to dip into their savings to cover the bills - not a situation one wants to be in, in already distressing times.
One hospitalization can unfortunately lead an entire family into bankruptcy. It may sound morbid, and something no one likes to think about. If there’s anything that the past year has taught us, it is that adequate insurance is an absolute need-to-have, and isn’t something that we can postpone or ignore. Families have lost their sole earning members. In the case of dual income households, the absence of life insurance threw the family’s financial future into jeopardy.
Once Annika’s family recovered, she took some quick measures and sought health insurance - both family floater covers and individual covers. It took a couple of months post COVID recovery, but she realized the absence of her employer’s cover had hit the family hard and they should have had personal health insurance covers in place.
No one wants to fathom worst case scenarios. Unfortunately, those scenarios can get real faster than we can cope with.
Another Example:
During the pandemic, the high medical costs and untimely deaths made Ankur reconsider his insurance requirements. He witnessed how friends and relatives found themselves completely unprepared for the suddenness with which they lost someone near, and the financial implications of losing an earning member. Many of them were saddled with huge medical bills and problems with insurance claims. Though Ankur’s existing life and health insurance policies are enough to meet his tax-saving needs, he wants to buy more insurance for himself and his family. Does he need to upgrade his health policy to a sum assured of Rupees 7.5 lakh and existing life cover of Rupees 50 lakh? He wants to know how he can evaluate the changes to his insurance needs in the midst of the pandemic and what his options are.
It is important for Ankur to understand that his insurance decisions should not be purely driven by tax-saving concerns. While it may be a benefit that is definitely useful, it should not be the deciding factor when it comes to the sum assured or coverage for a family like Ankur’s which is dependent on him for their various financial goals. Motivated by the fear of contracting Covid amidst multiple potential waves, investing in a comprehensive health plan for his family of three (including his wife and son) makes perfect sense. In fact, Ankur could also choose Covid-specific policies offered by all insurers. He could consider making a porting request as he is looking for policies with higher sum insured and better features like zero co-payment, no room-rent capping and shorter waiting periods.
Ankur had purchased his first insurance policy four years ago as a means to protect his family’s financial future. However, he must evaluate his current cover not merely as a tax-saving instrument, but whether it will be enough to replace his income in case of his unfortunate demise. Ideally, the sum assured of Ankur’s term plan should be 15–20 times of his annual income, and the policy tenure should be until his retirement age (61–81 years).
A well-insured household is always better equipped to deal with economic uncertainties. Protection products are becoming the foundation of financial planning especially considering the impact of a deadly pandemic. During unprecedented times like these, it is important for nuclear households like Ankur’s to make the right and timely decisions about protection specific to one’s needs.