Health Insurance for Domestic Employees in India

In addition to salary, providing health insurance can only further a positive relationship between an employee and employer, increase loyalty and foster a long-term relationship. Both of you will gain a peace of mind knowing that quality treatment is affordable. Health insurance protects your finances and prevents your employee from a health calamity and poverty. Health-care related debt is the biggest cause of poverty everywhere in the world.*

“More than 40 per cent of hospitalized patients will borrow money or sell assets to cover their costs. Hospitalized Indians spend 58% of their annual expenditure on healthcare. As a result, nearly a quarter of India’s hospitalized patients are dragged below the poverty line by their illness.”**

Very often when a trusted domestic employee falls seriously ill employers pay for hospitalization expenses anyways. As the cost of healthcare continues to rise, health insurance can protect your future finances from unexpected medical costs, while ensuring your employees life.

* Krishna, Anirudh. (2010). One Illness Away: Why People Become Poor and How They Escape Poverty. London: Oxford University Press.

**Rao, Sachin. (2006). Social Entrepreneurism in Healthcare in India. Leadership Conference on Best Practices, November 18-20, 2005, New Delhi, 5. The ACCESS Project: Access to Cost-Efficient Social and Sustainable healthcare.

For only a few rupees per day you can protect your employee and your finances from astronomical health costs. For all major individual health insurance policies offered in India with Rs 100,000 coverage the average cost for each age group is provided in the table below:

With affordable annual premiums it’s worth it to (why not) protect your, and their, finances from exorbitant medical bills due to an accident or illness.

For practically every health insurance policy one can easily apply online, and the proof of insurance will be emailed to you. Or, if you prefer to sign-up in person, a representative will visit your home and personally answer your questions. All you need to do is:

• Fill out the short and simple application
• Pay by check or credit card
• There's no need for pre-examination!*

Within a few hours or days your valued worker can have health insurance! It’s that simple.

*Pre-examination only needed if over 45 years old or are not in good health. Examination age required varies.

There are a few key features that are recommended to include in a health insurance policy for your domestic employee.

• Ideally Family Coverage
• Cashless Hospitalization
• At least Rs. 100,000 Coverage
• Preferably no TPA

Health insurance covers major medical needs as a result from an accident or critical illness. Due to the unexpected nature of such events, cashless hospitalization is important for your domestic employee to receive immediate treatment. Family coverage is suggested because an accident or illness in your employee’s family will affect their finances and work performance. A policy with 1 lakh coverage is proposed as it maintains a low premium for you, yet still will provide adequate coverage for an individual. It is suggested to select a health insurance company without a TPA to simplify things and ease the claims process.

If possible, supplementary components:

• Preventative Care*
• Full Reimbursement (if out of network)
• Customer relations - languages spoken
• National Coverage

*Typically preventative care is not covered, although this option is available in certain policies.

Your employee will receive health insurance! You or your employee will receive in the mail:

• An Introduction to the Policy
• The Policy Terms and Conditions
• A Personalized Insurance Card
• Important Number to Contact

Should your worker need emergency hospitalization, to be all he or she will need to do is provide their proof of insurance card and another type of ID. Depending on their admitted policy, their hospitalization fees will be fully covered, or significantly reduced, when an accident or health condition arises.

The first 30 days of employment is when the employee is most likely to leave, and luckily, almost every health insurance policy gives the highest refund during the first 30 days. In addition, if your employee leaves before 3 months or 6 months you will be reimbursed a percentage of the premium.

The probability of your employee leaving after six months is very low. Furthermore, you are inclined to purchase health insurance for an employee you see in your future.

To avoid this, you should sit down with your employee and explain their health insurance policy. If requested, many providers will have a health insurance representative come to your come to your home to go over the policy documents and what steps need to be taken when an accident or illness arises.

In addition, since your employees health insurance is supplementary to their salary you are doing it simply for their benefit and out of the goodness of your heart.