Shweta Rajani, Mutual Fund head, Anand Rathi Wealth, says “it may be worthwhile for each and every one to evaluate the cost that you are paying in terms of the extra premium but the additional treatments that are getting covered and clearly one has to understand that today hospitalisation cost or the medical inflation is clearly at around 10%. So, you need a policy which covers as many treatments as possible for you.”

Would you be buying a policy that addresses specifically women’s health issues?
Shweta Rajani: There are a lot of diseases or surgeries and all of that is covered which just fits the bill for you and in your checklist if you would have had treatments mentioned, it covers a lot of it. So, yes, in terms of premium, it cannot be compared to others because they do not offer a lot of these treatments. But simple answer, would I go for it? Yes.What also happens is like, for example, you already have yourself covered with maybe a family floater or an individual health policy. Looking at this kind of an offering, should you be going for a one more policy, which is very different in terms of value-added services or the cover that you already have, sooner or later you will see insurance companies catching up with all these trends soon?
Shweta Rajani: Absolutely. So, the policy itself gives you an option for a family floater as well. The only difference between the family floater you have today is that it does not cover a lot of these women-centric diseases mentioned that get covered in that. But here you can also have your partner getting entered into this policy, but it is more female dominated in terms of the treatments covered. So, it may be worthwhile for each and every one to evaluate the cost that you are paying in terms of the extra premium but the additional treatments that are getting covered and clearly one has to understand that today hospitalisation cost or the medical inflation is clearly at around 10%. So, you need a policy which covers as many treatments as possible for you. Everybody should do that evaluation and consider whether it is worthwhile or not. In most cases, it may turn out to be worthwhile.

Having the right kind of policy is the first step towards having a financial plan. It is always a health cover and a term cover that you should be covering yourself and the family also in terms of having the backup for financial uncertainties. Maybe this is the first step towards women’s healthcare that one of the insurers have taken. Going ahead, what kind of change you as a woman would want to see in this particular sector specifically for women?
Shweta Rajani: Definitely as a woman, I would want to see more treatments getting covered, which is one step in that direction by Future Generali. Of course, you want to have more coverage. Like even in this particular policy, we have a certain wait period. So, if there is a certain amount of cancer treatment, you possibly need to have a wait period of 12 months or 24 months which generally happens. That wait period should be reduced is something that I would look for.

A larger coverage of hospitals that you can opt for, that would be the second thing.

Third, more treatments are offered which need to be covered definitely. Also, in case of a lot of these, you would want the claim to be processed at a faster pace. These are the four points from my end that I would definitely want to look for being changed.