insurance Archives – Page 2 of 4

Health Insurance Premium – Tax deductions you should not miss

December 20, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

Wealth is lost, nothing is lost

Health is lost, something is lost

Well, times have changed. Today, a bill from a hospital can leave a large hole in your pocket.

If you talk to advisers and financial planners, their primary focus is to build your protection or insurance portfolio even before they start talking about your investments. The reason is simple.

You see, it may take you years to build adequate wealth. But an insurance cover can easily help you tide any large medical emergency requirements.

The better news for you is that even the tax department guys support your purchase of an insurance cover. They do it by providing exemptions on life and health insurance premium.

Under section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961, mediclaim / health insurance premium that you pay is exempt from income tax. In short, you don’t have to pay tax on income used for buying health insurance.

Here is how it works.

Death and taxes

January 5, 2017July 31, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

On Death

I spent the past few days in a hospital. I was attending to a family member diagnosed with brain tumour.

For the first few hours, it was chaos. The implications were not clear and given the way the human mind works, everyone assumed the worst. It was later confirmed that the tumour is not life threatening.

The hospital is a place where you come face to face with real pain – age no bar. It is a place where you witness people make friends with suffering, pain and ultimately, death.

Such an environment sets one thinking. There were moments when I would just sit and wonder about the inevitable. It has to happen one day. That’s certain. What will be that day, is not.

Steve Jobs said something very apt about death-

Insurance – the investment mirage

July 4, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

Insurance continues to disappoint.

Every comment or email that I receive reflects the disillusionment with investment based insurance products, more specifically with “Pension Plans”.

The customer now wants to surrender these plans. Some are not happy with the returns, others don’t see the fit with their goals.

I wonder how millions of people were taken for a ride.

The answer is easy. Here’s a piece that you should read to know why? Insurance: All that is wrong with it and you!

The Pension Plan reality

In reality the pension plans are – “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

What if you are unable to work? Accident Disability Insurance

May 17, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

Rohit was driving back from Pune to Mumbai through the expressway. After crossing Lonavala, in the Ghats, the curves on the road become so sharp that sometimes you cannot see what’s around the corner.

Rohit saw the milestone. He was 70 kms away from his destination. Just then he happened to look at his speedometer, which was hovering at 70kmph. He could not help but smile at this sheer coincidence of numbers.

Rohit was crossing that part of the Ghats, which had a few consecutive turns. He crossed the first, the second as he turned into the third one he saw a huge trawler overturned, less than 100 meters away.

As a natural reaction, he pressed the brakes with all his strength, but it was too late. His car rammed straight into the trawler’s rear end and overturned.

The car’s engine was smashed, the wind shield was shattered and Rohit lay inside unconscious.

What is Top Up and Super Top Up Health Insurance?

April 13, 2016April 12, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

In an earlier post I wrote about Health Insurance and what factors matter in selecting one. I compared 3 health insurance plans too – that of Apollo Munich, Max Bupa and Religare.

As you would understand by now, when you take a Health Insurance Policy, you are allowed to claim expenses against any medical treatments (as specified in the policy document) upto the amount of Sum Insured.

The question is what would happen if your medical expenses go beyond the Sum Insured. For example, you have a health insurance cover of Rs. 5 lacs. But for an unfortunate event that required hospitalisation, the medical bills ran upto Rs. 9 lacs.

Your health insurance would cover the expenses upto Rs. 5 lacs only. Where would you arrange the balance Rs. 4 lacs?

The simple answer is you would have to pay out of your own pocket, putting a dent in your finances.

Well, there is another solution to this problem. It is to buy a Top Up health insurance cover.

Buying Health Insurance – A comparison of 3 plans

January 21, 2019April 8, 2016 by Vipin Khandelwal

Updated version of this post is here. Buying health insurance – Comparison of 5 plans

I thought investing in mutual funds was a huge problem for you and me. Turns out I was so wrong.

Buying Health Insurance is a much bigger pain. I guess climbing the Everest would be easier. I don’t know from which planet did the creators of health insurance products come, but they have succeeded in scaring the hell out of us.

When the plans are presented to common janta like you and me, all I can feel is heads spinning.

Room rent capping, disease wise sub limits, waiting period for specific diseases and pre-existing diseases, co-payments, domiciliary hospitalisation, organ donor, emergency ambulance, renewals, no-claim bonus, refills, super top ups, top ups, vaccination, ….(stop for breathing…), how many things one needs to look at before deciding what makes sense?

I have spent over 24 hours (real hours) reading, talking and absorbing details on various health insurance websites and the plans they have to offer. Frankly, I am yet to recover.

Now I agree that there is a ton of useful material out there that already details what you should look for in buying health insurance. Even after going through those super helpful guides the evaluation of health insurance plans is simply no fun.

Anyways, after much dilly dallying, I decided to take the bull by the horns.