

Can your NPS pay hospital bills? ICICI Pru tests a new model
retirement savings with immediate healthcare liquidity.The NPS Swasthya Equity Plus scheme follows a high-growth investment mandate to counter medical inflation.Subscribers can withdraw up to 25% of their own contributions for medical expenses, including OPD, diagnostics and pharmacy purchases. However, the first withdrawal is permitted only after the account accumulates at least ₹50,000.
There is no cap on the number of partial withdrawals during the scheme’s tenure.If emergency medical expenses exceed 70% of the total accumulated corpus, a 100% withdrawal or premature closure is permitted.The scheme allocates 70-100% of the corpus to equities, up to 30% to debt, and up to 10% to money market instruments.If regularized, existing NPS account holders may be allowed to transfer up to 30% of their contributions into the Swasthya scheme.The structure has drawn initial scrutiny from financial planners.Mrin Agarwal, founder of Finsafe India Pvt Ltd, flagged concerns about the ₹50,000 threshold. “I feel that when one has a medical emergency, then one needs funds to be easily available, and I think this is a small downside in the product.
Otherwise, I think it's good that there is a health savings product that is being introduced in India.”"NPS Swasthya Pension Scheme is a contributory pension scheme. Also note that only up to 25% of own contributions can be withdrawn for healthcare expenses, the remaining corpus is earmarked towards retirement.
Read on livemint.com