Health, Insurance and Health Insurance

This is a post I have been wanting to write for a long time

A recent serious illness of a relative expedited it.

Most Indians, even the reasonably well educated ones don't pay attention to health insurance. When tragedy strikes, usually w/o warning, most of us are left feeling hapless.

I can't recommend the utility value of health insurance enough. Twice in the last two years, I have had to seek recourse - and both events were unexpected. Once my dad developed cataract. First he had unclear vision in one of his eyes, but he went nearly blind (temporarily) in just 2 days and we had to get him operated upon, while we were still planning to take him to the doc! And not too long ago, he had an accident when he got hit from behind by a car and broke an arm. On both occasions, the insurance helped, although in the recent one, we ended up shelling out more than 50% ourselves. Still...

For those of you reading this blog, I have 3 requests
1 . Please get yourself covered (if you are not already) to the tune of atleast 10-15 years of living expenses or earnings whichever is higher
2. Get yourself checked once in 6 months atleast for most common ailments. And for those of you who are women, get yourself checked for breast cancer, atleast once in every 3-6 months. In recent times, one of my colleagues in office as well as a relative have been shocked to find out they were afflicted
3. Get yourself covered with a health insurance policy to the tune of atleast your annual income or twice that, regardless of age. If you have dependent parents, please get them covered too