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Health Insurance - A Comprehensive Study 643

additional complications like heart disease, strokes, becoming conscious about their health and the eco-
kidney failure, eye disease and foot problems. Death nomic consequences of falling sick. They are gradu-
from heart ailments is the leading cause of death ally realizing the significance of health insurance in
among people suffering from Type II diabetes. today’s precarious world.
Diabetes is a silent killer. What was the disease of References
the old has now become a disease that has begun
to affect people in their twenties and thirties. Being 1. 1.K Ranson, and M. Jowett, Developing Health Insurance in India: Back-
ground Paper to the Government of India., Workshop on Health Insurance.
diagnosed with diabetes in one’s youth severely im- 2003.
pacts one’s work, and by extension, financial securi- 2. 2.PHFI, “A Critical Assessment of Existing Health Insurance Models in
ty. The burden of treatment, rising medical costs and India”, a report submitted to the Planning Commission, Government of
the fear of losing one’s hard earned income due to India, New Delhi, 2011.
health complications can leave one medically and 3. 3.A. Mahal, Assessing private health insurance in India: Potential impacts
financially vulnerable. and regulatory issues, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.37 (6), 2000,
pp. 559–71.
According to industry estimates, In India, an approxi-
mate of 85-95% of all health care costs are borne by 4. 4.D. Singh, A Study on the Development of Health Insurance – its History,
Current Scenario and Future Prospects in India, D. Subrahmaniam Award
individuals and their families from household income with report presented, 2011.
as most people are not insured. With insur-
ance, the average claim size of a diabetes policy is 5. 5.V. Bishnoi and R. Saharan, Health Insurance in India: Introspects and
Prospects, The Icfai Journal of Risk & Insurance, Vol.4 (3), 2007, pp.
Rs 50,000. Diabetes costs for treatment for 5 years 58-68.
is Rs. 1,50,000 and for 10 years is Rs 4,00,000. The 6. 6.N. Devadasan and S. Nandraj, Planning & Implementing Health Insur-
average monthly expense for a diabetic comes to ance Programmes in India, Institute of public Health, 2006.
around Rs 5,000 – Rs 9,000, this excludes the ac- 7. 7.Devadasan et al., Community Insurance in India: An overview, Economic
tual treatment (doctor’s consultations, medical tests and Political Weekly, 2004, pp. 3179-83.
and treatment costs). In the scenario that additional
complications like heart disease, strokes or kidney 8. 8.Institute of Public Health, Training Manual on Health Insurance, Ban-
galore, 2006.
failure happens, the additional cost of treatment is
hiked by about Rs 20,000 a month. 9. 9.I. Gupta and M. Trivedi, “Beyond a Piecemeal Approach”, Economic &
Political Weekly, June 24, 2006, pp. 2525- 28.
A standard medical policy sometimes does not offer 10. 10.Exclusions in a Health Insurance policy | Medimanage.com [Inter-
adequate cover for the advanced treatments. One of net]. Medimanage.com. 2017 [cited 13 September 2017]. Available from:
the main reasons why most people face complica- http://www.medimanage.com/my-health-insurance/articles/your-medi-
tions while dealing with the disease is that it is di- claim-policy-excludes-these-expenses.aspx
agnosed very late. Buying a health insurance well in 11. 11.Exclusions of Health Insurance Policy [Internet]. Policybazaar.com. 2017
time, when you are young and healthy, means paying [cited 13 September 2017]. Available from: https://www.policybazaar.com/
a lesser premium as compared to when diabetes is health-insurance/general-info/exclusions-of-health-insurance-policy
knocking at your door. A healthy person can buy a
health insurance cover of Rs 7,000 – Rs 9,000 per
year as compared to Rs 18,000 – Rs. 20,000 per year
for a diabetic patient.
There are policies that also cover non- diabetic health
issues that crop up while being treated for diabetes.
While some insurance providers don’t let you take
a diabetes cover if you have already contracted dia-
betes, there are a few policies that provide cover to
such patients as well. It is important that all these fac-
tors are taken into consideration when one decides
to invest money into a policy that covers diabetes.

Conclusion
Health Insurance is a growing segment of India’s
economy. The rising trend of the share of health port-
folio indicates the increase in the level of awareness
of customers. This signifies that the general public is

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