It is cliched but true that life is unpredictable. We all work hard most of our lives to amass financial security. However, unexpected events also occur, and one cannot escape that. This includes health conditions that may occur even if you are taking good care of your health.
Such unexpected medical emergencies can hamper your financial plan and burn a hole in your pocket. To prevent that, common wisdom recommends getting a health cover. Health insurance plans cover a huge chunk of medical expenses and treatments and safeguard you and your family against financial turmoil and disruption. They also protect you against medical inflation and the rising cost of treatments. Many insurance companies offer mediclaim policies with various benefits which you can avail early on in life while you’re still young and healthy.
Because of rising costs, health insurance companies want to diagnose your health condition for existing illnesses, if you have any. So, they offer a pre-medical medical checkup facility.
What is a pre-medical checkup facility?
It refers to medical examinations and tests required by the insurance company before you can get health insurance coverage. Above a certain age, this checkup becomes mandatory, and it checks the applicant’s medical fitness. This checkup is also done so that any policyholder while buying a mediclaim policy does not choose a sum assured beyond what they need or are eligible for, as this situation can increase risk for the insurance company.
Why is pre-medical checkup important?
This checkup to determine your health is important while availing a policy because it sets a benchmark for your future policy benefits. These tests also reveal any pre-existing medical conditions you might have and help your insurance company determine adequate mediclaim coverage for you.
Getting the pre-medical checkup done is also beneficial for you as a policyholder. It helps when you file for a claim later. Otherwise if a particular illness stems from a pre-existing medical condition that you didn’t mention before, your claim application can get rejected. So, getting the checkup done will avoid confusion on both ends.
Which tests are conducted in a pre-medical checkup?
Health assessments done by different insurance companies vary slightly and can be clearly understood while you compare health insurance plans online. But the standard procedures tests that you will have to go through include blood pressure measurement, blood sugar, blood count, lipid profile tests, ECG (Electrocardiogram) and the like.
What happens after the checkup?
After you get the test results, the insurance company determines the right sum insured for you. If you have an existing medical condition or critical illness, any of these things will happen:
- The insurance company will give you a mediclaim but with a higher premium. Your age and impact of the illness diagnosed will also affect the premiums.
- If the insurance company thinks that the medical condition is too risky, then it may choose to approve the health insurance policy but exclude cover for pre-existing conditions.
- In case the risk is too high, and the policyholder requires frequent treatment, then the application can be repudiated. But this is only in a rare event, otherwise it is best to still try for the application.
So, this is why it is important to have pre-medical examination done. Check if your insurance provider offers this facility and compare health insurance policies for the same, especially when it comes to health insurance for senior citizens.