Story Time: Why Health Insurance and Timely Renewal is a Knight in Shining Armour

Sahir has been a UAE resident for the last 10 years. He moved to the country when he switched his job and in no time he got married and started a beautiful family - a family of 4 living in downtown Dubai. He made investments in high-end equities in the Dubai Financial Market and even planned his retirement well.

However, one day his younger child Junaid fell ill to an extent that he was admitted into hospital. He was diagnosed with a critical condition and required immediate treatment. The cost of the treatment came out to be a whopping mount of AED 500,000. 

A mega finance planner, he decided to use the family health insurance he had purchased 12 months ago to get Junaid treated. His son got successfully treated and went home happily. However, at the time of reimbursement, he learnt that his family health insurance plan had expired. Moreover, he had to pay a hefty fine for the same too.

Consequently, he lost all his retirement corpus and savings for his children’s higher education abroad. Luckily, his son was saved.

While it may appear that the story had a happy ending from an emotional angle, if a financial advisor reads this, they will find a major mistake that Sahir had made.

The major mistake he committed was he did not renew his health insurance on time and eventually ended up paying all the treatment costs out of his pocket. 

Moral of the story, thus, is health insurance the indispensable umbrella that can save you in the rain of a medical emergency. Therefore, having a health insurance plan and timely renewal is essential.

Diving Deeper into the Financial Moral of the Story and the Aftermath

Continuing with the story, Sahir paid a hefty amount as penalty and eventually bought a new family health insurance plan. Junaid was recovering speedily and it was his monthly appointment with the doctor. However, because of non-renewal of the health insurance plan on time, Sahir had to pay for the OPD consultation out of his pocket. 

Here’s a thing, you lose all the accumulated benefits including coverage for pre-existing medical conditions if you do not renew your health insurance on time. You would need to wait for the coverage for 6 months yet again.  Besides loss of the coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, you lose all the accrued no claim bonus discount and option to shift the bonuses to a new health insurance plan.

Health insurance plan is important, yes. But renewing it within the grace period is even more crucial. Had Sahir understood the significance of the same, he wouldn’t have ended up hurting his retirement corpus and draining his savings. He would have also been able to secure his family’s health in a more secure way if he had not let the no claim bonus discount lapse with timely health insurance renewal. 

Moral of the Story - Make sure you renew your health insurance on time to secure your family when a medical emergency arises. 

Policybazaar UAE – Helping you navigate the wilderness of the insurance world!

Written by: Tanvi Pathak