The Role of Health Insurance in Managing Medical Inflation

Have you noticed how your routine visits to your doctor or a basic diagnostic test feel more expensive every year? Well, you’re not imagining it. Healthcare costs are rising faster than ever before, and unlike general inflation that affects groceries and fuel, medical inflation hits harder because it generally strikes during emergencies.

Now, the question stands: How do you protect yourself from something like medical inflation, which is only running uphill? This is where health insurance becomes more than a backup plan – it becomes a financial tool. 

What exactly is Medical Inflation? 

Medical inflation refers to the yearly increase in the cost of medical services, hospital stays, outpatient care, surgeries, medication and everything else associated with healthcare. In India, medical inflation is reported to rise by 14% annually – this means that a treatment that costs Rs. 1 lakh today will cost nearly double in a few years. Without proper planning, this uphill battle can leave a dent in your personal savings or even push you to debt in extreme cases. 

Health Insurance: Your Shield Against Medical Inflation 

A comprehensive health insurance plan acts as a buffer against these rising costs. Here’s how: 

  1. Coverage against High-Cost Treatments: From specialised care to complicated surgeries, most major expenses are covered under standard and advanced health insurance plans. 
  2. Hospitalisation Benefits: Most health insurance plans cover in-patient stays, pre-hospitalisation, post-hospitalisation, room charges, and even ambulance charges up to a certain limit. You can increase this by paying an extra health insurance premium
  3. Cashless Treatments: You can avoid paying from your wallet by opting for planned treatments in any network hospital that enables cashless transactions from your insurer. 
  4. Daycare Procedure Coverage: With medical trends shifting towards same-day treatments, most daycare procedures are covered within basic health insurance plans. You always pay an extra health insurance premium amount to get coverage for any specific treatment not covered in the base plan. 

Apart from all these, you can compare and get the best health insurance plan for you depending on your healthcare needs and financial budget. Paybima can help you get a huge bang for your buck by providing information about the different health insurance plans and providing expert guidance. A comprehensive plan with an affordable health insurance premium can be your best bet against medical inflation. 

Conclusion

Author Bio

Paybima Team

Paybima is an Indian insurance aggregator on a mission to make insurance simple for people. Paybima is the Digital arm of the already established and trusted Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd., a reputed name in the insurance broking industry with 17 years of experience. Paybima promises you the easy-to-access online platform to buy insurance policies, and also extend their unrelented assistance with all your policy related queries and services.

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