12 things you should look out for before buying health insurance
A thread 🧵
You have to be a little wary of policies that come with co-pay. With co-pay, you need to pay a pre-decided amount from your own pocket whenever you make a claim.
The larger your expenses, the larger you’ll end up spending your own money, even with insurance.
This is something you need to be conscious of when making choices during hospitalization. Let’s deep dive into what will happen if your policy doesn’t have a room rent limit and when it does.
You have a health insurance cover of ₹15 lakhs, with *no room-rent limit*. You get treated for a condition that costs you ₹2 lakhs, and you paid ₹15,000 in room rent per day.
You have a health insurance cover of ₹15 lakhs, with a room rent limit of ₹12,000 per day. You get treated for a condition that costs you ₹2 lakhs, but you stayed in a room that costs you ₹15,000/day.
In this case, each component in your cost is proportionately deducted (12/15*cost), and therefore, you can only claim ₹1,60,000 of your total expenditure.
Check the attached image to understand how your claim amount gets reduced.
You might have thought the room rent doesn't matter as much - but it does.
During this period after you purchase a policy, you cannot make any claim. It’s typically between 30 to 90 days. This waiting period is waived in the event of an accident that leads to immediate hospitalization.
This applies to pre-existing diseases (like diabetes) present when a health insurance policy is bought. The insurer will accept your claims for treatment related to these diseases only if the waiting period you agreed upon has passed.
This means that the insurer applies a limit on the amount you can claim for treatments for specified conditions and diseases.
Save yourself that shock by going through the rest of this thread and also bookmarking it :)
After you buy a policy, you can cancel it within a certain free-look period, stating your reasons.
However, the insurer will not refund any medical tests, stamp duty charges done during this period.
The free-look period is typically 15 to 30 days.
This is the facility given by the insurer to you, for covering your pre and post-hospitalization expenses.
This will go a long way in saving you a lot of money (and stress!)
This means single-day treatments like eye surgery, etc. are covered by your health insurance policy.
Several common treatments require single day hospitalization, so you need to totally make sure that these are covered.
If you don't make any claim in a year, the insurer will reward you by increasing your coverage amount (with a max limit).
No claim bonuses are good-to-have on your policy.
If your policy has a domiciliary cover (quite some insurance-speak!), it means that you can claim money when you are treated at home.
This is great during these times because it’s really difficult to find hospital beds during the pandemic.
If you’ve completed 8 years of coverage, the insurer cannot reject an eligible claim, for any reason except for proven frauds and exclusions made in the policy documents.
If you spot these words, it means the insurance company provides you with a free health check-up.
More from Health
🚨Important changes to lockdown/self-isolation regulations from 5pm
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers and Self-Isolation) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021
£800 'house party' FPN & police can now access track & trace data
https://t.co/k9XCpVsXhC
“Large gathering offence”
As trailed by Home Secretary last week there is now a fixed penalty notice of £800 (or £400 if you pay within 14 days) for participating in an gathering of over 15 people in a private residence
Fixed Penalty Notices double for each subsequent “large gathering offence” up to £6,400
Compare:
- Ordinary fixed penalty notice is £200 or £100 if paid in 14 days
- Holding or being involved in the holding of a gathering of over 30 people is £10,000
Second big change:
Since September has been a legal requirement to sell-isolate if you test positive/notified by Track & Trace of exposure to someone else who tested positive
Police can now be given access to NHS Track & Trace data if for the purpose of enforcement/prosecution
This will make it easier for police to enforce people breaking self-isolation rules. Currently there has been practically no enforcement.
Data says only a small proportion of people meant to be self-isolating are fully doing so.
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers and Self-Isolation) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021
£800 'house party' FPN & police can now access track & trace data
https://t.co/k9XCpVsXhC
“Large gathering offence”
As trailed by Home Secretary last week there is now a fixed penalty notice of £800 (or £400 if you pay within 14 days) for participating in an gathering of over 15 people in a private residence
Fixed Penalty Notices double for each subsequent “large gathering offence” up to £6,400
Compare:
- Ordinary fixed penalty notice is £200 or £100 if paid in 14 days
- Holding or being involved in the holding of a gathering of over 30 people is £10,000
Second big change:
Since September has been a legal requirement to sell-isolate if you test positive/notified by Track & Trace of exposure to someone else who tested positive
Police can now be given access to NHS Track & Trace data if for the purpose of enforcement/prosecution
This will make it easier for police to enforce people breaking self-isolation rules. Currently there has been practically no enforcement.
Data says only a small proportion of people meant to be self-isolating are fully doing so.
Very important that obvious failures with Track and Trace and self-isolation (study late last year said 18% of people complying https://t.co/dhJUZ7Pm0l) are not painted as an enforcement issue. Plainly not. Would just pass buck to police who have almost no capacity to enforce https://t.co/Eb4Kl5Ze0E
— Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) January 25, 2021
You May Also Like
1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
