Your medical insurance is of great benefit – not to you but to your insurance company

Bunny and I were facing a dilemma. Going over our domestic expenses, we came across a major item of expenditure, labelled Health Insurance. 

Over the last few years, we’d shelled out over ₹9L to our insurance company as a financial safeguard should either of us require serious medical care.

In the event, we had not been in need of costly medical treatment and this was the root of our dilemma. ₹9L was a sum that had not only made a dent in the family coffers, but caused them to resemble a deep excavation at an archaeological site. 

We had spent all that money as an investment against physical affliction. But had we got commensurate ROI, return on investment? What in local parlance is called paisa vasool? 

In order for our paisa to be adequately vasooled, ought we be obliged to wish for a blight to strike us to make our insurance expenditure be money well spent and not squandered? 

Did the principle of VFM, value for money, make medical distress desirable? That was our dilemma. 

And then, as ill luck, literally, would have it, Bunny developed an agonising pain, caused by neuralgia, that required a hospital visit, an expensive MRI, and two even more expensive spinal surgical procedures. 

A dark cloud that had a silver lining of validating our expensive health insurance. But the silver lining turned out to be worthless tinsel.

Our insurance company rejected our claim. Why? The treatment was for an age-related problem and was, therefore, not covered. If age-related problems are not covered, why sell health insurance to senior citizens who need it most? 

We realised we’d have done much better to have put the ₹9L spent on insurance in an interest-earning FD as a safety net against medical emergency. 

Reportedly, over three crore claims, amounting to ₹30,000cr, are rejected annually, averaging some 9% of all cases, a number that is reportedly growing by 19% year-on-year. 

As we pay the hospital bill, we discover that health is indeed wealth. Not our wealth, but the increasing wealth of insurance companies.

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