Know Why Your Company Health Insurance Could be Insufficient
Pawandeep, a 29 old IT professional lives in Mysore and works in a well-known IT firm. His company offered him an employer health insurance policy of Rs. 3 lakh covering all basic healthcare requirements. Pawandeep thought that his employer’s health insurance policy would be sufficient for him, and thus, he didn’t purchase any separate health insurance policy. Last year, Pawandeep suffered from an accidental injury and was hospitalized for some days. The hospital handed him an Rs. 2 lakh bill that was reimbursed by his corporate group health policy. This year, Pawandeep was infected with the lethal COVID-19 virus, and again, he was hospitalized for 14 days. Once he got discharged, the hospital bill was Rs 1.5 lakh for the COVID-19 treatment. Pawandeep’s corporate group health policy only reimbursed Rs 1 lakh as his policy sum insured got exhausted. Pawandeep paid the remaining amount from his pocket as he didn’t have any separate health policy. At that time, Pawandeep realized that he was under-insured, and his corporate health insurance policy was not adequate to cater to all his healthcare requirements.
Though corporate health insurance has many advantages, still, one should purchase a separate health insurance policy to deal with medical inflation and healthcare exigencies. Moreover, during this deadly COVID-19 pandemic, everyone should be covered adequately to stay protected against this Coronavirus.
Are All Employers Required to Offering Health Insurance?
Every government and a private company is offering their employees corporate health insurance plans for their well-being. Though earlier company health insurance was not compulsory in India, with this ongoing lethal COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government started taking enthralling initiatives to ensure that all Indians should have adequate health insurance coverage. With this valiant step, the government expects every organization to offer holistic corporate health insurance policies to their working population.
Employer health insurance policy reimburses the costs of hospitalization of the employee along with his/her family members (in some cases). Another prime advantage is that all pre-existing health conditions are covered under this policy. An employee never gets rejected for a health insurance policy because of higher age or any pre-existing diseases.
However, with the above example, we see that corporate health insurance policies themselves might not be sufficient to cover all the health care expenses. Why? Let’s understand some of its disadvantages.
Disadvantages of a Corporate Health Insurance Plan
- Insufficient coverage Amount
Corporate health insurance policies offer only a limited sum insured amount. The maximum coverage that an employee can expect is around Rs. 2-5 lakh. But the cost of medical treatment such as for a critical illness is quite expensive, and this amount will only support 25 to 35% of the total expenses. Moreover, medical inflation is rising rapidly in India. This means if you are diagnosed with a critical illness, you need to pay most of the expenses from your pocket if you don’t have any insurance cover.
- Co-Payment Clause
This is a common clause for any health insurance policy, indicating that the policyholder will pay a certain percentage of healthcare bills. In this case, the insurance company will reimburse only a part of the sum insured amount. For example, suppose the insurer will reimburse 80% of the total expenditures, and you need to pay the remaining 20% from your pocket. In some cases, this may go up to 40%. Most corporate health insurance policies come with a co-pay clause. But regular health policies don’t have a co-payment clause and also offer you a higher sum insured.
- Room Rent Capping
This clause implies that your policy will cover only a certain amount of your room rent per day in the hospital. In most corporate health insurance plans, the permissible room rent limit is pre-decided. And if you choose a room beyond your policy coverage, you need to pay the remaining balance from your pocket.
- Policy Tenure
Your corporate health insurance will only remain active till you are engaged with the organization. The moment you leave the organization or your employment ends, the policy will be annulled. You won’t be covered under any health insurance policy until you join the new organization.
- Number of Insured Members
You must be astonished to know that not all corporate health insurance plans cover all your dependent family members. This is one of the major drawbacks of this plan. The prime purpose of purchasing a health insurance policy is to secure your loved ones from healthcare emergencies and medical inflation. And if you have many dependent members like your spouse, children, and elderly parents, then corporate health insurance plans might not be sufficient for you.
These are some drawbacks of corporate health insurance policies.
How can you Cancel your Employer’s Health Insurance Policy?
An employee can voluntarily cancel coverage of a corporate health plan at any time only if the company is not having employee premium contributions deducted pre-tax.
The bottom line is you can always enjoy the benefits of your corporate health insurance plan, but it wouldn’t be a prudent decision to rely completely on your employer’s health insurance plans. That’s why everyone should look for private health insurance policies that will offer you adequate coverage and benefits. Some private health insurance plans come up with intriguing features like a free health check-up annually, lifelong renewal, and a no-claim bonus of up to 50%. The most expensive benefit of a regular health insurance policy is that you can choose the coverage based on your and your loved ones’ requirements. If you are looking for an individual or family floater health insurance plan then don’t delay your decision and visit iiflinsurance.com. You can speak to their insurance experts, compare plans and opt for the right health insurance policy for yourself and your loved ones.
