PORT, BUY TOP-UPS TO TACKLE RISING HEALTH PREMIUMS IN OLD AGE

Healthcare costs can eat into your retirement corpus, so buying health insurance makes sense. If rising premiums are holding you back from buying a cover, here are some tips to reduce the outgo

- Versha Jain

Healthcare cost should be one of the major factors you should take into consideration when planning for your retirement.

It is now a well-known fact that healthcare costs are rising at a much higher rate than retail inflation. Compared to retail inflation, which is around 4-5 per cent, medical inflation is more than double at 14 per cent, according to a report by the insurer Plum. In other words, a commodity that costs ₹1,000 today may cost ₹1,628.89 in 10 years. In contrast, a treatment will cost ₹3,707.22 in the same period.

So, if you are not prepared, healthcare costs can eat into your corpus and make life difficult.

According to the Health Insurance For India’s Missing Middle report released by Niti Aayog in 2021, Analysis from Brookings India, based on NSSO surveys, shows that over 7 per cent of India’s population is pushed into poverty every year due to healthcare costs.

In such cases, health insurance can come to the rescue.

According to a research titled Health Insurance In India, in the International Journal of Engineering, Management, Humanities And Social Sciences Paradigms (IJEMHS), “In India, people are not very aware of health insurance, and only a small part of the population takes advantage of it. Even well-educated people ignore the necessity of having proper health insurance coverage.”

However, low awareness and rising premiums often pose a hurdle. Senior citizens could find the cost even more prohibitive, as premiums rise with age.

So what does one do to bring down the cost of mediclaim? Says Parthanil Ghosh, director and chief business officer at HDFC ERGO, “Keeping health insurance premium costs low is essential to manage healthcare expenses.” He suggests that maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and availing of discounts, such as loyalty and long-term renewal discounts, among others, can make insurance affordable.

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