Matter of policy: Why insuring yourself for more and more is like being faced with an all-you-can-eat buffet 😊

Bunny and I have just bumped up our health insurance policies by a sizeable amount. The decision was prompted, in large part, by news reports that because of the pandemic which has resulted in a majority of hospital facilities being reserved for Covid-19 patients, costs of general medical treatment have shot up like an Isro rocket launch.

While Bunny and I aren’t unduly worried about catching the ‘C’ bug, taking great preventive care by scrupulously wearing face masks and observing social distancing, we felt it prudent to provide ourselves greater insurance cover against more common ailments at a time when healthcare has become ruinously expensive.

The result has been that the annual insurance premium we pay resembles the turnover of a midsized MNC, or the sarkar’s fiscal deficit, whichever is larger.

While we do feel more secure now that we have a truckload of assured medical cover to pay for any health problems that may beset us, I’m faced with a dilemma.

With my Kutchi business community genetic legacy, I’m programmed by the dictates of ROI – return on investment – which in this case is the premium being paid on our medical policies.

I certainly don’t want either of us to suffer from any sort of ailment, even a minor one. However, while health is undeniably immeasurably better than wealth, the ingrained imperative of ROI, of getting one’s money’s worth, induces a sneaky half-regret that the hefty premium we pay on our health insurance will be a total waste unless at least some of the benefits the policy provides are availed of.

That’s the paradox of all insurance, be it against ill health or other misfortune: it’s a good thing that bad things don’t happen, but if a bad thing were to happen, we’d get some ROI on our insurance, we’d get some money’s worth on the expenditure incurred against bad things happening.

It’s like going for an all-you-can-eat buffet at a fixed price. To get your money’s worth, your ROI, you’re tempted to overeat at the expense of getting indigestion, or risking incipient obesity.

That’s the paradox that we’re well and truly assured of as a matter of – insurance – policy.