It's been 2 days that I have been in Mumbai and I have been hearing of all these medical cases of my very good friends and their relatives. It's kind of disturbing when a family member gets sick and hospitalized. When one member in the family falls sick and gets hospitalized then everyone who stays in the same house also gets into the hospital. One of my very dear friend's fathers has been in the ICU for the past 3 weeks, not only has the hospitalization drained them out but also the bills. In the ICU daily the cost comes to 60k to 70K which is around 800$ approximately.
There is no pre-approved insurance in his case, so the family has to take care of the expense right now from their side and then will have to claim it from the insurance company. The sad part is that their insurance cover is limited and they have crossed that amount, so now whatever expense happens will be out of their own pocket. With the condition it looks like he will be in the ICU for a week more and probably some more days in hospital in the normal room.
In India, the health insurance system is not like the western countries, where the government takes care of all the hospitalization expense. Here we need to buy our individual insurance. The premium is based on the amount of the Insurance. Most of the corporates give medical insurance policy to their employees and that will also have an amount limit. Otherwise, you have to get your own insurance. The yearly insurance premiums are also very high and more the age higher the premium. Old people who do not have high income sources go for lesser amount insurance policy where to have to pay less premium but then in times like these when hospitalization happens it is a disaster.
Medical expenses are too high these days, and if you are looking for better facilities then you have to pay premium charges on everything. When my hubby was unwell and in and out of hospital for 8 months, our total bill came up to around 35K $. He was fortunate that his company took care of all his medical expenses. If not for that we would have drained out a big amount of our savings.
The other behavior I have observed here in India is, when people are healthy, they do not feel a need of getting the Insurance, only with the idea of paying high premiums on yearly basis and not utilizing it. But it is so important these days to have an Insurance policy of a better grade, because the medical expenses are whooping. The sad part is that once you get into the hospital there is no hold on the expense, they will flow like a running tap and if we are not prepared for it, then it's a disaster.
In the last 2 days that I have been in the city, I have made 3 hospital visits and I feel sad to see people there in helpless condition when it comes to dealing with the medical expenses. My friend looks so drained out as if he himself is sick and needs treatment.
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