Due to the stressful work-schedule, many people, especially those who are salaried, harbour a wish to retire early. Early retirement has its own perks. You can finally find time for yourself and your family and if you are so inclined, start a venture of your own thereby striking up a good work-life balance. You will find that you have more time to pursue your interests and hobbies and for things that you enjoy. However, this is when you need to plan for your health insurance for early retirement so that your post-retirement phase does not have any financial woes due to medical exigencies!
Why is a Retirement Plan Necessary?
Financial concerns are a hurdle for most people as far as their goal of early retirement is concerned. There is always the fear of not being able to afford your present lifestyle. Also, one of the biggest worries y for most people is that they may be afflicted by some medical condition which is expensive to treat and will take out a substantial chunk of their retirement corpus. India’s life expectancy was 70.8 years in 2019 as per data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and therefore you need to arrange for the costs of living long too. With the high medical trend rate, commonly known as medical inflation, at 14% in 2023 in India, as per Business Standard, such concerns about health care for early retirees are justified.
Although mostly large corporations do provide their employees with employer-specific health insurance, the scope of coverage is very limited and it becomes null and void once the employee leaves the organisation. This means you will remain without coverage once you leave the organisation.
Thankfully there are several early retirement health insurance options which will eliminate your financial worries and let you go forward with your early retirement plans.
How to Plan a Comfortable Early Retirement Plan?
The best way to plan for your early retirement is to invest in a health insurance plan, preferably a floater plan with your spouse, with a higher coverage, say fifty lakhs to one crore, as early as possible. You may invest in a base or comprehensive plan and build up your coverage with a super top-up plan. This is a great option for health insurance for retired under 65, which however you need to invest in at an earlier age so that you can avail of a higher coverage without exclusions under pre-existing conditions.
>> Also Read: Government Schemes for the Benefits with Senior Citizen in India
Top 10 Benefits of Including Health Insurance to Your Early Retirement Plan
Following are the benefits of investing early in health insurance for early retirees plan:
1. Financial Stability in Retirement
By investing in such a plan you know exactly how much you will have to pay as early retirement health insurance costs to cover medical emergencies. By choosing long-term health insurance, you can save on premiums as well, For example Care Health Insurance offers renewal discounts on long-term policies (if you pay the premium for 3 years at one go) up to 2.5%, while a 5% discount is payable if premium is paid through digital channels.
Pro tip: If you opt for higher coverage early in your life, your medical expenses in your post-retired life will be comfortably taken care of, despite the rising medical inflation and the rising cost of treatments!
2. Lower Premiums
By investing early in your life and not waiting for when you plan to retire you are eligible for lower premium rates. As insurance premium is linked to your age, the earlier you invest, the lower your premium.
Pro tip: At a younger age you tend to be healthier and disease-free and your premium does not shoot up significantly. So, if you opt for health insurance for early retirement at a younger age you can lock in the lower premium rate for future renewals as chances of having pre-existing ailments are significantly lower at a younger age!
Note: Health insurance premiums would surely rise with age, but the coverage amount can be predetermined earlier with prudent decisions!
3. Medical Emergencies
Retiring early is like a dream come true till you factor in healthcare costs. This is applicable not only after you retire, but also in the period when you are building your early retirement corpus.
Medical emergencies, both after retirement, as well as in the period when you are saving for retirement, are capable of setting back your early retirement goals by years. By investing in retire early medical insurance you can avoid the consequences of such incidents since the same would be covered under health insurance.
4. Lifelong Renewability
By investing early in a health insurance plan you also ensure lifelong renewability of the same. Once you grow older, medical insurance renewal, and even new policy issuance, are subject to medical tests apart from entry age barriers.
Pro tip: Remember to renew your policy on time so that your policy does not lapse and you can continue to enjoy the benefit of having sufficient health insurance coverage as long as you live!
5. Increase of the Coverage Amount
Features of health insurance policies include No Claim Bonus (NCB) and Super NCB where your coverage increases by a certain percentage subject to you not making any claims in a year. In effect, health insurance companies reward you for being healthy and not making claims. The chances of accumulating no claim bonus are higher when you invest in a health insurance plan early.
Pro tip: Care Health Insurance offers Cumulative bonus and Cumulative bonus super where your coverage may increase up to 100% and 500% respectively under Care Supreme plan. Also, a 30% of renewal discount is also offered for keeping a health record. Thus, by investing early, apart from covering various medical conditions, you can also avail attractive discounts on premiums.
6. Automatic Recharge
Another feature which you should look for in insurance for early retirement is automatic recharge. This feature ensures that your coverage amount is replenished if you exhaust your entire limit. The insured can claim every time he/she exhausts the policy limit, provided the claim is made for different ailment.
However, with our Care Supreme Plan, one can claim for unlimited numbers for unrelated or same illness for a policy tenure. In a family floater plan, this is an extremely attractive feature as both partners may face medical emergencies with increasing age.
7. Additional Riders
Additional riders are available along with health insurance policies. Riders like Critical Illness Rider and Personal Accident Rider are nearly mandatory to avoid huge expenses after early retirement.
Pro tip: The additional premium outflow for riders is significantly lower than the base plan and can be taken along with the base indemnity plan to enhance coverage for your post-retired life!
8. Pre-Existing Disease Coverage
Health insurance policies cover pre-existing diseases only after a waiting period of 2-4 years depending on the insurance company. By investing early you can easily serve this waiting period without having to claim the policy and cover the illness whenever is needed. As one is more vulnerable to lifestyle diseases in later age, it is best to invest early.
Pro tip: Invest as early as possible to serve waiting period peacefully and get coverage as and when you need it.
9. Pre and Post-hospitalisation Benefits
Under pre and post hospitalisation benefit, the expenses incurred for medicines, test, consultation fee etc. are covered for 30 before to 90 days after hospitalisation. However, with our Care Supreme Plan 60 days prior and 180 days post hospitalisation coverage is offered. Such features help in keeping your retirement corpus intact by provisioning for the equally expensive pre and post-hospitalisation costs.
10. Cashless Hospitalisation
Another major benefit offered by health insurance is cashless hospitalisation. This feature helps by allowing you to take care of medical expenses without having to dip into your savings or investments. With Care Health Insurance’s 24800+ network healthcare providers, you can get cashless and faster claim experience without having to worry about the expenses.
Let’s Secure Your Retirement Phase with Care Health Insurance
You would now be aware of the paramount importance of investing in health insurance for early retirement and investing early on in life without waiting for when you plan to retire. Some of our best health insurance for early retirement have been gaining popularity for their unique and comprehensive nature One such plan is Care Supreme, which comes with key benefits such as Unlimited Automatic Recharge, Cumulative Bonus, In-patient Care, Day Care Treatments, Ayush Care and additional benefits (paid add-on) such as Wellness Benefit, Cumulative Bonus Super, Annual Health Check-up, Claim Shield, Care OPD, Instant Cover and PED Wait Period Modification. You can also consider Care Advantage plan for higher coverage with affordable premium. Apart from these a long list of plans are there to choose from as per your retirement needs.
This would have helped you make an informed decision as to when you would be in a position to retire comfortably.
Disclaimers: All plan features, benefits, coverage, and claims underwriting are subject to policy terms and conditions. Kindly refer to the brochure, sales prospectus, and policy documents carefully.
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