Employer health insurance – do you need your own health insurance too?

It may be beneficial for you to buy a health insurance cover on account of benefits of
• Continuity: If you leave your job, the track record that you have built with the insurance company through the old employer will not get transferred to the new company policy. Hence you will not have the continuity benefit. It is logical for you to have your own health insurance policy as continuity will ensure coverage of pre-existing disease at a later stage.
• To ensure coverage at all times: There is likely to be a transition period when you shift from one job to the other. In the interim period, you will be exposed to health costs which you may not be prepared for.
It should be noted that if the employer has taken a health insurance policy on you and in addition you have taken one yourself, after having exhausted the limit provided by the employer, you can use your personal policy for recovering the balance amount. For the same, you need to take a certificate from the TPA of the group insurance policy (employer’s policy) that the limit has been exhausted and submit it to your TPA.
Some companies also provide cover for the family of the employee. Even then, it makes sense to go for personal health insurance policy because the coverage amount may not be adequate and once you leave the job, you do not get the benefit of you and your family’s history with the insurance company. So if any of your family members has developed a disease in the meanwhile, it will be treated as pre-existing while taking a new policy.