Mother's Day 2019: Women should buy these health covers for maximum benefit

Mother's Day 2019: Often women do not purchase separate health insurance cover for themselves and they are mostly covered under the family health plans. However, women may take the plans that are designed for them, as the nature of illnesses women suffer is different from the men. Therefore, it might be beneficial for women if they take specific illness cover.

Subramanyam Brahmajosyula, Head - Underwriting & Reinsurance at SBI General Insurance, said, "Another reason working women do not take additional health plan, is that they are usually covered under a group health plan taken by their employer. However, the group health plan may not cover illnesses that women may be prone to and leave you financially incapacitated." 

Brahmajosyula said that maternity, congenital disability, ovarian cancer, and cosmetic surgery after an accident are some of the women-specific conditions that one must take into consideration.

Women should buy a health insurance policy that has maternity cover, pregnancy, breast cancer, among other women-specific illnesses. They should also read the details about post-hospitalisation expenses, as many diseases like breast cancer need long-term treatment and the cost of diagnosis is very high. Therefore, women should opt for policies that have post-hospitalisation covers, said Sebi-registered investment advisor Jitendra Solanki. 

How much cover the policies offer in post-hospitalisation expenses is an important thing to look for. The women should also take a policy that covers pregnancy expenses right after marriage. They should also know what is the waiting period for their policy claims. 

When one buys an insurance policy, terms and conditions stated in the policy documents should be read properly. Many a time, people get fooled because they do not read these documents while buying policies, he said. 

However, awareness among the women about the health insurance that cover women-related diseases is very low. Therefore, many times it becomes difficult for them to get proper treatments when they fall ill and need long-term treatment.