Beyond Savings: Why Women Must Prioritise Health And Term Insurance

India’s women make a million decisions every day, including financial ones. From running the household to managing its budget, a woman holds up the system and fixes it even before someone notices. Yet, when it comes to protecting herself, she often acts reactively and not proactively.

Several factors are at play here. First, insurance decisions were primarily taken by men for a long time. Second, insurance awareness has been low in India, but it gets further magnified when it comes to women’s share in insurance. Third, due to these factors, the product design also reflected a blind spot in catering specifically to women customers.

Fortunately, that narrative is now changing. Standard products are now more customised, and more personalised to acknowledge and address women’s needs. A combination of rising female workforce participation, greater financial literacy, and a product market that is beginning to build for women rather than around them is shifting the terms of the conversation. The question is whether planning decisions in Indian households are keeping pace.

The New-Age Women And Her Needs

Today’s women are frequently juggling more than one identity. A salaried professional or a business owner who also carries the invisible load of caregiving that never appears on a balance sheet. Her health risks reflect this compounded life. The age between 30 and 50, when most Indian women are at peak caregiving and earning responsibility, is also when health issues like thyroid disorders, PCOS-related complications, breast cancer, and autoimmune conditions are most likely to surface.

“These are not rare events. Breast cancer alone now accounts for over 13 per cent of all new cancer cases among Indian women, according to ICMR data, and cardiovascular risk increases between the ages of 30 and 40. A health disruption during these years brings every financial and caregiving commitment to a halt too. This doesn’t only affect young women. On average, Indian women have a longer life expectancy than men. So, this also means that a woman who retires at 60 faces healthcare costs without the income that once supported her. Her need for long-term health coverage and financial protection is what insurance needs to cover even beyond her earning years,” says Vivek Jain, CBO, Policybazaar.

In this case, a Day 1 coverage for pre-existing conditions is of great value to cover health emergencies without having to pass waiting periods. Similarly, wellness and preventive care programs, including annual health check-ups, are some features that make perfect sense for women.

Factoring In The Adequacy Of Health Cover

Next comes the question of whether the health cover you have is adequate for you. Rather than individual coverage, most families operate on a single family floater policy. So, in practice, if a child or spouse claims earlier, depending on the claim size, the mother may or may not have enough coverage at all for the policy period. Usually, even in individual covers, the sum insured ranges anywhere from Rs 5 to 7 lakh, which is not sufficient to battle today’s medical inflation reality. The solution is to have a personal cover of at least Rs 50 lakh to 1 crore. The premium for a 35-year-old woman in a metro city comes around ~Rs 1200 per month.

“Another reality is that not all medical issues need hospitalisation, but that doesn’t mean they don’t cost you. So, it’s equally important to have OPD coverage in place. Multiple rounds of doctor visits, especially in metro cities, can quickly drain your budget in out-of-pocket expenses. For expecting mothers, it makes sense to opt for new-age maternity plans that offer coverage at a waiting period of as low as 3 months. This effectively means that even expecting parents can go for these plans, which was earlier not possible with a waiting period 2-3 years. This is a pathbreaking innovation that helps millions of young families,” says Jain. 

Term Insurance: Protecting What She Actually Contributes

Life insurance penetration in India is already stubbornly low at roughly 2.8 per cent of GDP. Term insurance forms a much smaller part here despite being a crucial product for the middle class. Narrowing it further to women’s share tells us that we have a lot of ground to cover. However, in the past few years, the industry has made significant strides to tailor term insurance products to women’s needs. The prime example of this product innovation is the independent term policy for homemakers. Historically, homemakers were dependent on their spouse’s coverage due to the fact that their immense contribution to the family was not considered financially tangible. However, now they can secure a term cover of up to Rs 1 crore with a lenient eligibility of household income and educational qualifications. It acknowledges, for the first time in product design, that financial dependence on a homemaker is real and quantifiable.

“Also, the industry has now customised products and pricing around the lower mortality rate for women. A longer life translates to a lower chance of the policyholder passing away during the policy period. This has had a direct impact on premium. A woman in her early 30s buying a Rs 1 crore term cover will typically pay 15-20 per cent less in annual premium than her male counterpart. Alongside this, women-specific riders are becoming more common: critical illness add-ons that cover breast, cervical, and ovarian cancers with a lump-sum payout on diagnosis, waiver of premium if the policyholder is diagnosed with a covered condition, and income protection features that replace monthly cash flow during recovery rather than paying only a terminal benefit,” says Jain.

While product innovation is necessary, it’s not enough to ensure insurance penetration. There’s a need to drive better awareness, go deeper into the corners of India and ensure affordability to meaningfully drive coverage. And most importantly, women would need to make their financial protection goal a priority. Until these gaps close, even the most thoughtfully-designed products will fall short of benefitting the women they are meant to serve.

FAQs

1. Why are women underprotected financially in India?

Women remain underprotected because they typically rely on family floater plans or plans led by the spouse and fail to take adequate cover of health and life insurance on their own.

2. What insurance should women invest in?

Women should take up adequate health insurance covering OPD expenses, maternity benefits and also a term insurance plan which can help achieve their long-term financial goals, say experts.

3. Are insurance products in India becoming women-centric?

Yes. Insurers are introducing plans with lower premiums. These plans offer maternity benefits, critical illness rider. Insurers are even coming out with term plans targeted at homemakers.