Healthcare in retirement: How to insure yourself amid rising medical costs

livemint.com:

₹3,00,000 to ₹5,00,000 2. Bypass surgery: ₹2,50,000 to ₹7,50,000 3. Angioplasty: ₹2,00,000 and ₹6,50,000 4.

Cataract surgery: ₹25,000 to ₹50,000 per eye 5. Hip replacement: ₹3,50,000 to ₹5,50,000 While most of these costs are covered by health insurance, hip replacement and cataracts are not covered by normal health policies and are treated as exclusions. Therefore, investors need to create a separate health fund at the start of their retirement to cover such exclusions.

1. Top-up plans Taking a top-up plan or a super top-up plan dramatically reduces the cost of health insurance while also widening the scope of coverage. Further, deductibles and copay options reduce the premium.

Youngsters should purchase medical insurance before marriage because some providers cover maternity benefits only after a waiting period. Look for health policies that allow enrolment of pre-existing ailments once a certain cool-off period is completed and for policies allowing restoration of benefits. 2.

Critical illness coverage Apart from general health insurance, it is possible to insure oneself for critical illnesses including certain types of cancer, strokes and heart attacks. These policies provide a one-off payment when a client has been diagnosed with a severe illness, which can be spent on treatment, changes in lifestyle, or compensation for lost income during the treatment period. Critical illness policies can be purchased from a health insurance company or life insurance company as an add-on rider.

The differences are in the coverage of critical illnesses, the payout benefits, and the premium. 3. Dedicated healthcare fund As much as people would like to go for treatment, they face the problem of high costs, and this leads to insurance