Plan Your Retirement The Smart Way!

Staying young is everyone’s eternal dream, but the harsh reality of life is that old age is inevitable. Hence it important to plan it well in advance so that one can live stress-free during the golden years of one’s life. Old age brings with it its own share of medical problems that mostly don’t have any cure except managing them and learning to live with them. And such unpleasant surprises always cost a lot of money. For those elderly who retire with the expectation that they will survive with their modest savings and decent amount of pension come in for a rude shock when a medical calamity falls on them and most of their savings are spent on getting the basic possible medical treatment.

You may wonder then what the solution is for this problem! Especially when you are nearing retirement and you still haven’t made any plans!

The answer is simple: invest in a senior citizen health insurance plan.

The best thing about it is that as per the IRDA guidelines, the insurance companies have to provide insurance to a person up to the age of 65 years old! And such plans cover you for the period between 65-80 years of age! Sounds interesting?

Yes, it is! The reason being all insurance companies have various plans to offer you so that you can buy a policy that meets your requirements. And there lies the catch: to find out the best policy and the best insurance company so that you don’t have to suffer due to inadequate insurance coverage or poor customer service.

How To Go About It?

Even though there are a host of insurance agents to help you out with, the best thing to do before approaching them is to do your own research. There are websites that act as a platform to display all insurance products by all insurance companies at the same place. This way, you can find out about various plans, do a comparative analysis about their terms and conditions, benefits offered, insurance coverage and premium due. Once you have shortlisted a couple of plans, then you can consult the concerned companies to clear your doubts and get more information before you zero down on the best plan that fits your criteria.

Things To Consider While Selecting A Plan

The important factors to keep in mind while checking out various plans are:

A) Insurance Cover: do check what the insurance cover is offered to you based on your age, per-existing diseases etc. Obviously, select the one that offers you maximum cover with least amount of premium along with the best benefits out of all.

B) Maximum Age At Renewability: This is an important factor so that the policy doesn’t lapse before you get to utilise it.

C) Co-Payment: Check out how much is the co-payment. This is mostly charged to ensure that people don’t misuse the insurance policy by going for medical treatments that are not necessary!

D) Diseases Covered: This part has to be studied in full keeping in mind the diseases you are suffering from and the ones you’re genetically inclined to suffer in later ages. Only take the policy that covers all major diseases so that you’re not denied claim later on.

E) Waiting Period: Every policy comes into effect after a waiting period that varies from company to company. Hence, find out when your policy will come into effect so that you don’t miss out on getting the medical claim.

What Are The Benefits Of Having Such A Plan?

This Retirement Plans offers a host of benefits that can make your life really easy:

A) The complete hospitalization is taken care of by the insurance policy provided you have bought an adequate cover for it.  The only condition being that you need to be hospitalized for more than 24hours.

B) Expenses incurred during pre and post hospitalization are also provided for by the insurance company except the number of days being covered will be different for each insurance provider.

C) Even those expenses are covered that don’t require you to be hospitalized for more than 24 hours, but involve procedures like chemotherapy, dialysis etc.

D) A lot of companies cover per-existing diseases as well, but you have to read the fine print to know the exact details.

E) Tax benefits are also to be derived out of buying an insurance policy. You can claim such expenses and get rebates on them.

As you can see, having a senior citizen health insurance policy can work wonders for you and help you to meet the medical costs without any hassles. The only thing you have to do is to plan about it right now so that you can gain maximum benefits out of it. Starting early will ensure you pay less premium compared to those who buy a policy near their retirement age.