Complete Health Check Up Annually – Yuvraj’s message for You

By
Hemant Beniwal
46

Complete Health Check Up Annually - Yuvraj’s message for You
“Your report says, you have CANCER”… can you just imagine what would have gone under Yuvi’s head when he heard these dreaded words from a doctor? Although treatable, but still the word Cancer, is enough for anyone to imagine the death bed and last rituals. This gives us a clear message that a complete annual health check up should be on your must to do list.

These are unavoidable circumstances, but they have deep impacts on one’s social and professional life. Yuvraj comes from an affluent family, his father being a cricketer himself and Yuvraj himself a youth icon with crores of income from the game and the endorsements. He can even earn from his illness- check out his advertisement for a life insurance company.

Message is right but product is wrong… Anyways it fits well with yuvi’s current situation. A person who was man of the series in world cup is facing such a bad phase of his life. What about a common man? Think if you face similar situation at peak of your career…

Read – what is Family Health Insurance Policy

Yuvi can afford to get treated in one of leading hospitals in cancer care and Government and Cricket Board came to his rescue, but can we afford the same? I know some of you can, and few of my smartest friends would have taken a Health Insurance policy & Critical Illness insurance for them self and family to avoid these circumstances. Believe me this write up is not about Health Insurance or any of the illness plans, but this is about the first step before the insurance itself. We all have heard the proverb “a stitch in time, saves nine”. So why don’t we just recollect a few facts, so that we have a lesser chance to come under “Surgeons knife” or before “popping the pills”.

Ask – Insurance Questions

How can you avoid Health Hazards?

You know we can save a lot of money, by following certain health rules. These are not 100% scientific rules but yes they can be very helpful. These rules are:

1)      Know your Heredity: these are generic transmissions from parents to kids. There will be days in future when you would be able to change the structure of your biological traits, but for the time being you can just follow these rules. Observe two things: one your appearance like you are plump, athletic, obese etc . Second watch for any disease history, which can be genetically, be transmitted. Major common ones are Diabetes and Hypertension. Once you are done with these two things, just follow what rationality suggests. Of course give up sweets if your family history is “sweety”. If you can’t give up at least curtail the intake. After all we are planning to save some money here and each penny counts!!!

2)      Avoid: even if your chromosomes permit, avoid these below listed things:

  • Junk food. Oily food particularly the deep fried dishes.
  • Stress. Mismanaging the routine chores.
  • Undisciplined food and sleeping habits.
  • Life on couch. Nor using your physic.
  • Alcohol, Nicotine and other brothers & sisters of this illustrious family.

Simple 5 things but not so simple to follow.

3)      Live in a Healthy environment: live with people who lead a healthy life. Get inspired from healthy people. Gain positive energy from them. Instead of watching movie trailers in morning, tune the channel which airs the fitness program. Subscribe a fitness magazine & take action. Watch live sports or matches. Develop friends who are fitness freaks. Do not neglect the fitness topic.

4)      Must do: these are again very small things and you will have to spend also on these a bitbut this works in longer run and will cut your medical bills to a large extent. These are:

  • Exercise regularly: Walk, Jog, Swim, join a Gym or a sport like tennis or badminton. But shake those legs.
  • Eat on time and eat healthy.
  • Plan life and your work. Be smart.
  • Develop a De-stress mechanism. Meditation may help before medication. Spend some time on something, you wish for.
  • Go for complete health Check up.

Good Health in your Budget

Annual health check up

Complete health check up

Just heard – that Yuvraj’s father has advised – the cricketers that they should regularly go for Health Check-ups. Why only cricketers Sir? This should be for everyone. Our Army follows this system. Each of the grounds-men, be it any rank, has to go for a regular health checkup after a fixed interval of time. They are even graded (shape 1, shape 2 etc.). Even after retirement they go for annual complete health check up. Army men, cricketers are tough guys, as they are surrounded by medicines, injections, pain-killers etc., but we are not. For us doctors are like “devdoots” on a mission. We avoid them till the last moment as we all know, “emergency unit is open for 24 hours”. So why plan for a regular complete health check up? Just see around yourself and ask people how many of them go for a regular check-up? People who can afford also do not go for simple reason of fear and laziness. You know Government is planning to add a 10% cess in your income tax, if you do not provide an annual fitness certificate!!! Just a joke!!!  For those who believe that they will only go for regular checkup when it is “Mandatory”.

Free Health Check up

Do you know that Health Insurance policies also provide you a free complete health check up at regular intervals? Normally these are given if there is no claim made in certain number of years. Rationally this should not be point for Health Insurance Portability. Check few such offers – they can depend on the policy variant so please read your policy document:

  • Apollo Munich – Cost of health check up are covered up to 1% of sum insured, subject to a maximum of Rs.5,000/- per insured person and provided only once at the end of a block of every continuous three claim free years.
  • Iffco Tokyo – Health check up costs are covered once in a block of 4 claim free years.
  • United India Insurance – Cost of health check up at the end of block of every three years where no claims made during the block.
  • ICICI Lombard – Free health check-up coupon for any one insured family member, valid for the policy period.

Even the diagnostic labs (Religare, Apollo, SRL etc) also organize free Health Seminars and provide discounts on comprehensive health checkups. Participate as these are good for us, even though it means spending a few bucks.

Health is Wealth

There is a very philosophical relationship between money and Health. I meet lot of clients who say they lose health because they are earning money. A sales person says he skips lunch and adjusts on a Samosa since he is on constant move. A doctor says he works at odd hours to comfort his patient. Normally when I get a mail after 12 AM & if client is from India – I reply with health tips. (Hi Doc are you reading??) Recently I met a PSU bank manager who said that he consume 35-40 cups of tea as water is contaminated in their region and tea is a boiled so he will not have water-borne ailments. Yet on the other side, I also hear from senior people that they did a mistake of not taking care of their health and even though now they have money but they do not enjoy life because of health related issues. (Also Read: HDFC click 2 protect)

But we require both Money and Health, and that is a tradeoff.  Very few people have managed both. Health and Critical Insurance policies and other things can take care of financial burden but do feel secure about our health. Hence we need to feel healthy and that can be achieved by following certain rules as mentioned.

Also, a point here that to save medical bills you will have to shell a small amount today. Fruits are luxury and joining yoga will cost you & some time you may get it free in Baba Ramdev’s camps. Annual health check up will be an expense and some of your friends will also discourage to continue for next year. But, believe me it is not a waste of money and it exceeds the money spent when your doctor with a smile says “Excellent Health, you are fit”.

I am not a doctor so take my advice with pinch of salt. I will love to hear your views on annual health check up.

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46 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Hemant
    I am in complete agreement with what you have said. But the problem is -It is very easy to preach but very difficult to practice. I am giving here two examples of people very close to me.
    One of my relatives around ten years older than me was a doctor.He was a chain smoker and addicted to alcohol.He was a very lively character and believed in enjoying every moment of life.Being a doctor he was very much aware about the harmful effects of smoking and drinking but he still wanted to continue with his smoking and drinking. His wife is a doctor. His four daughters are all doctors. But he never listened to anybody when he was alive. His logic was -Enjoy every moment of your life because you live only once. He used to say that nobody is going to miss him when he dies as he has no dependents. He was right. He died when he was around 65 and nobody seems to miss him as his wife and daughters and their husbands who are all doctors are running a huge hospital and minting money.
    Another of my relatives who is around five years younger to me is also a doctors. His wife as well as his son and daughter are also doctors.He is also following the foot steps of the person mentioned above.He even takes injections of pain killers. After every six months he has to be admitted to the hospital for some problem or the other. But he is not prepared to listen to anyone.
    Do you think the younger generation is not aware of the harmful effects of junk food? But are they prepared to listen?It seems to me that only the retired people are interested in healthy living. I recently visited my retired brother in law.He is very particular about his regular health check up.He spends a lot of time on yoga and meditation and does not take any unhealthy food.

    • Hi Anil,
      The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. I think similar thing happened with your Docs & anyone else.
      For retired people yoga & walk are time pass activities – they like to meet their friends & enjoy their routine 😉 What you say??

      • Hi Hemant
        I can not say about others but atleast for me Yoga and walk are not time pass activities. My wife is very regular about yoga but I have never been able to get any spare time for it. I walk a lot during my normal daily activities but I don’t go for a regular morning or evening walk.

  2. Hi Hemant
    My comments seem to be vanishing these days. I had written a very elaborate comment but when I hit the submit button it just vanished.

      • Hi Hemant
        I think this is the effect of aging.Sometimes I just forget to hit reply button and other times I hit submit button twice.

  3. Hi Hemant..
    Gr8 article…and believe it or not….its a doctor to first comment on ur article…real gud tips. This is wht we advise pple, esp the ones with hereditary problems….

    Is critical health policy a must for people with family history of major illness??
    How do u rate apollo Munich restore plan??

  4. Excellent article.But this is somewhere , which I failed .I should make sure that my child doesnot commit the same mistake.

    • Hi Meera,
      I am not sure why you are saying “you failed” – I think we can start improving health from any point of time.

  5. Hi hemant,

    Really good article. Actually people in India are behind money (wealth) like me :).

    We really need to care about our health. Actually I have already started with my daughter and will continue with other family members also.

    Hope this message will read by all users and they will circular to loved one.

    Thanks for posting…

  6. A great article. A wake up call for the masses. We are really very lethargic when it comes to our health issues. We wont pay heed until its grows to a grave situation. There are so many health insurance to choose from and they dont cost a fortune when it comes to uor and our’s family’s health. and yes we get tax rebate too 🙂
    And as the saying goes – Prevention is better than cure….

    • Hi S Chowdhury,
      You rightly said “We are really very lethargic when it comes to our health issues.” I have shared couple of activities in “Good Health in your Budget” people should one where their motivation will be high or to start with they can try to improve on eating habits.
      Or enjoy what they are doings as Anil mentioned in one of his comments 😉

  7. Even if 1% of those who read this article and actually follow the routine of going for a Health Check-up…. i think purpose of writing this is at least met…..
    Keep the good work going ……

  9. I agree with the overall theme of the post but I feel that there is a mis-conception about the term “Complete Health Check Up”. These products offered by hospital chains have various flavours and are targeted towards companies who offer their employee free checkup in a year or well-to-do individuals who just wants to feel good that they are doing something for their health. These checkup are for those people who do not have any apparent health problems.

    These checkup would be no good in detecting disease like cancer because they have very limited set of tests included in the package. And for rare senarios where it do points towards the dreaded disease, it should not have required a “Complete Health Checkup” in the first place (i.e. person should have gone to doc much earlier).

    The key is to be aware about your health and body and contact a good doctor if you find something abnormal.

    When a common man hear the word “Complete” they assume that they would be examined head to toe, but that does not happen. I am living in a metro, many times my relatives ask me they want to have a complete body checkup, what I suggest them is to go to a specific doctor for the specific problem they are having.

    p.s. Mr Anil Kumar Kapila : You may compose your response in notepad and then copy paste in the “Leave a Comment” section. That would save you from the frustration. This is just what I did after reading your comment 🙂

    • Thanks! Deepak for your valuable suggestion.In fact I was also thinking on same lines when I saw my comment on which I had spent ten minutes worth of typing time just vanish in thin air. This is very frustrating indeed! But I don’t blame Hemant for that as he has some very valid reasons for blocking some comments.

    • Hi Deepak,
      Agree with you that taking doctors guidance is the best thing – that’s why I wrote “I am not a doctor so take my advice with pinch of salt.” 🙂

  10. Dear Mr.Hemant,
    Very good article sir. Many of us are neglecting these things till a health issue comes up. I am going to ask every one I know to go through this article and get the valuable message.
    Thanks

  11. You know Government is planning to add a 10% cess in your income tax… lol. But seriously, the article is awesome. Talks both importance of health insurance, healthy habits and check up. Every individual must read this article and take appropriate steps to prevent such health issues. Thanks for sharing.

    • Hi Mansoor,
      Last week I was talking to someone – he was saying “Term Plan is Just a waste of Money” I said “You can compare it with your Vehicle Insurance” & he said “I buy vehicle insurance because it is mandatory” LOL This gave me idea of adding this joke 🙂

  12. Good article Mr.Hemant.. I like all your posts..
    I am new to this TFL and after reading few of the articles in TFL I immediately purchased Term Plan for Rs.50 lacs..

    Thanks for your good work…

  13. Dear Hemant,

    Healthly lifestyle and annual health check ups are very important. I would prefer paying for the checkup from my pocket rather use the facility from the health insurer. Say the tip of an iceberg is detected in a health checkup can this not be used as the reason to increase premium even if no claim arises due to the iceberg? Nothing in the polciy wording that they would and nothing that they wouldn’t. So its a dark area.

    Annual checkups aside there are many diseases which can go undetected, misdiagnosed etc. Healthy habits are necessary for long life but unfortunately not sufficient.

    Readers outside of India may have a look at
    www. 23andme. com
    which takes a saliva sample does DNA test and shows % probability of one getting deadly diseases.
    Googles co-founder has a 50% change of getting Parkinsons because he has a gene mutation and his mother has the disease. They don’t ship to India because of customs issue. The whole things costs about 25,000 INR

    • Hi Pattu,
      There is a big grey area here “health checkup can this not be used as the reason to increase premium even if no claim arises due to the iceberg?”. As mediclaim is an yearly contract, insurance company expect that if insured find anything that can impact the contract – he must inform the company. so even if you go for health checkup from your pocket, you need to disclose it. 🙁
      I am first time hearing about this DNA test…

  14. can u tell me some good health insurance 4me and my family.my family consist of my father 65 ,my mother 59,brother 35,wife 22 and me 30…..should i opt 4 indivdual or family floater …which would be cheap and best?

  15. Excellent article!!! Very nice way to put the message across. 🙂 Being a doc, just posting my views on the same.

    Very rightly said Deepak, complete health checkup is usually done by ppl who are healthy for their peace of mind. I am not undermining the importance of annual health check up. But, if you have a specific problem, go to your doc with the specific complaint rather than going for a complete health checkup. This will definitely save your time, money and most importantly health. 🙂

    Another important point -Its always better go to your dr when you have a health issue rather than treating it yourself. I have seen many patients who come to the hospital after a week or so of self treatment when the disease problem is much worse and advanced. Always remember, the earlier you seek professional advice, the less chance of things getting out of hand. Its much similar to ppl who take bad decisions regarding financial matters, mess up and seek professional opinion only when they are neck deep in debt. 😉

    Remember -“If health is lost, everything is lost”. Wish you all a healthier and happier life 🙂

    • Thanks Doctor Anoop for sharing insight – I think this comment will be really helpful for everyone including me. 🙂
      I fully agree with this “Its always better go to your dr when you have a health issue rather than treating it yourself.” We can find lot of people on chemist shops asking for medicines – self prescription or chemist’s suggestions. It can really be dangerous. And similar thing happens daily in financial world…
      My Story (for all readers) – When I became Doctor through information on net: 😉
      Few months back my wife had some sores & blisters on stomach. Through symptoms we tried to identify disease on google as it was already 10 PM. Within few minutes we were sure that this was HERPES. Try to search about Herpes & you will know it’s very dangerous & contagious disease. That was my worst night of life, my wife slept in other room. Next morning we consulted 1 dermatologist & he said you have read it right but she has Herpes Zoster that is not that severe. Information almost killed us.
      Its always important to consult a professional without wasting time.

  16. Hi Hemant
    I liked this point most- Avoid Alcohol, Nicotine and other brothers & sisters of this illustrious family.
    I recently read one book on personal finance.In the book the author has given very useful money saving tips.Though all the measures are worth considering, a much bigger amount can be saved every year by just avoiding smoking and drinking and thus taking care of your health as well as your family’s health.Good health will not only bring your medical bills down but also prune your insurance premium. Use of tobacco and alcohol burns the biggest hole in your finances.
    As per a news report a 30 year old person stands to lose Rs 52 lakhs due to tobacco use over 30 years.I know it looks like preaching but such facts need to be highlighted by the CFPs and I am glad that you have done a good job in this post.

    • Thanks Anil for sharing this.
      I would like to share that I don’t smoke or take alcohol or chew tobacco or even taste supari – hope this will help be in building my retirement corpus 😉
      Just to add I don’t even take TEA LOL

      • Hi Hemant
        This is another area where our views are identical.Since this winter has been quite harsh here I took the liberty of taking tea during the winter months.However, I had to soon give it up as it was causing me acidity.

  18. Hi hemant,

    just had query regarding mediclaim as I have enrolled my parents for mediclaim which is provided by my co. where i am paying 16k for cover of 5Lac for both + domicilary exp upto 5k each. Just want to know shall I go with my co. plan or I look for other pvt co. plans
    my parents age is mom 55 & dad 59
    I get 100% of the claim amount and its hasle free claim , also want to know is it costly ???

    please suggest

  19. Yes it’s true! Full body checkup helps a lot to detect health issues if any. I also had a experience that my Uncle had been detected with cancer in health checkup in early stage it really horrible feeling but as it detects in early stage in full body checkup, it saves my Uncle’s life. So everyone should go for health checkup annually and need to follow healthy lifestyle too.

  20. Exactly, annual health checkup is a most important part to live a long healthy and happy life.It is the healthy step which helps in assessing risk factors and diagnosing diseases at an early stage, which will result in effective treatment. But the matter of regret is many people are not aware about it, this post is one of the best effort to spreading awareness about health checkup benefits.
    Thanks keep posting such informative post!!

  21. Great article. Getting complete annual health check-up actually increases the life expectancy. The budget chart above itself take away all the worries. Thanks for the great post. I would like to peer more post like this.

  23. Extraordinary article. Getting total yearly wellbeing registration really builds the future. The spending outline above itself removes all the concerns. Much obliged for the incredible post.

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