Health insurance, as the word suggests, insures the risk of a person’s medical expenses. It is a type of insurance coverage that pays for all health related expenses from surgeries to small injuries or regular medical check-ups. Health insurance either reimburses the insurer or pays the medical authorities directly. It is often offered by companies to their employees to ensure quality workforce.
Why is Health Insurance valuable?
Health insurance is valuable owing to many reasons. People with no health insurance are likely to get poor medical services, no timely checkups, and quality health becomes a financial burden for such people. Health in Pakistan is a privilege, and health insurance make certain that you are provided with that privilege in the best way possible.
Read also: Why Health Insurance is NOT a Thing to Avoid
Reasons Why Health Insurance is Expensive
Health insurance tends to get really expensive because of multiple reasons.
1: Administrative Costs
The top most reason of health insurance being so expensive is administrative cost. The administrative cost of our health care is huge. Running the health care sector costs a huge amount of money in terms of management staff and administrative staff. More than anything else in the medical department, costs are associated with administrative costs, which is higher than any other department.
2: Drug Costs
Another major factor that makes healthcare an expense that is out of reach of most people is the cost of drugs. Even the government tends to understand that drugs are really expensive and people under a certain wage cannot afford basic healthcare and lose lives to easily curable diseases like pneumonia. The government tries to negotiate with the drug makers to lower the prices, but because of the fact that most drug making companies are private, they are unable to do much in this regard. Medicines that are provided by the government hospitals are free of costs for a certain class, but it is not enough. The quality of such medicines and the limited amount of the dosage provided is not enough to cure the diseases.
3: Defensive Medicine:
One reason of health care being expensive is defensive medicine. Doctors sometimes, because of their own benefit or sometimes because they are genuinely scared of being sued, do not conduct a proper diagnosis until they have ran all sorts of medical tests. Multiple tests can cost a lot, and some tests are too expensive to be affordable for poor people. And government only provides certain tests free of costs to people under a certain wage and to government employees.
4: Expensive Ways Of Treatment
Because of no or very less concern from the government on health issues, government and private practitioners offer expensive ways of treatments to patients. For example, they may prescribe a medicine from a company they have contracts with, even though a similar medicine of another brand is available at a cheaper price. Personal interests comes into play and people are robbed of the opportunities to get right medical treatments. This also happens because of lack of knowledge of the patient or the family.
5: Branding
As mentioned above, the brands play a vital role in over pricing the healthcare. A certain medicine with the same salts can be available in variety of prices. Practitioners tend to have a certain understanding with these drug making companies and they prescribe their medicine to their patients not considering if they can afford it or not. They tend to forget that not just their health but their lives are on stake.
Read also: 5 Questions to Ask Before Going for Health Insurance in Pakistan
How To Save Up on Health Insurance Plan
There are multiple health insurance companies, but how to decide which one meets all your expectation of ensuring a healthy life for you and your family?
Here are few of the factors that you must keep in mind while choosing which plan to go for.
1) Lower Premiums are Not Always The Most Affordable Option
While lower premiums will sound great initially, it might also mean that you will have to pay more for deductibles. These things have to be kept in mind of course. For example if you go for a high deductible policy, there are chances that you might pay less premium. But then you will have to pay more for deductible.
2) Compare
Four major health insurance companies are, Jubilee Insurance, IGI Insurance, Askari General Insurance, and TPL Life. Always calculate how much health insurance subsidy can you get and comparing different policies from different companies can help you get a much better deal.
3) Know If A Certain Health Insurance Plan Covers Insurance for All Members
If you are married and have kids, be very careful while choosing a plan. Your health insurance must cover a quality healthy life for all your family members, not just for yourself. By looking for a plan that is perfect for you and your family, you can end up saving a lot of money.
4) Compare the Coverage Of Existing Plans
Some people tend to overlook the benefits that two different insurance plans can give you. This can just help give you an advantage in a maximized way.
5) Health Insurance Waivers
Health Insurance waivers allow a person to get the space to decide with one group of insurer and then after discussing things and thinking them over, they can go for the one that benefits them the most, without any pressure on themselves for selecting a certain plan over another.
6) Health Insurance Agents
One of the wisest things to do would be to get a health insurance broker. It is their field and they can guide you the best as to which plan is perfect for you. These professionals know this field inside out and can help you find whatever you are looking for. Trust us: it is not an unnecessary step.
Health insurance is a basic necessity these days. With the increasing amount of health issues, one must ensure that they can cover their health expenses without a worry. Health insurance also provides a healthy life for your spouse and your kids, and is an essential part of modern life.
