Aishwarya Iyer
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Written By: Aishwarya Iyer | Published : August 13, 2018 9:57 AM IST
Health insurance has gained a lot of prominence in recent times. Everything from accidents to cancer is covered by health insurance. We could go on and on about why each one of reading this might have some insurance to safeguard yourself or your loved ones health. But have you ever wondered what if somebody suffers from, say depression? Or anxiety or schizophrenia? Why aren't these covered under health insurance?
Not to bombard you with numbers but simply saying, an estimated 56 million individuals in India suffer from depression- according to the World Health Organization. This means about 20 per cent of our population suffers from a mental illness that is not even covered by insurance. So, that means some disease that can plague almost anybody today isn't safeguarded.
Every one hour, a student is said to be committing suicide in our country, due to depression. After depression, anxiety is the most common culprit.
Costing and mental health
Let us give you a faint idea of how expensive mental health today is. If you were to go to mental health clinic anywhere in the Mumbai suburbs or Thane, a regular consulting or visit to a psychiatrist will cost you about Rs 700. This amount is, of course excluding the medicines the doctor will prescribe.
Don't forget that psychiatric visits, unlike in other ailments can be quite frequent so the doctor can monitor the development of medicines. So, if I were to visit a psychiatrist twice a month, I'll spend a whooping Rs.1500 excluding medicines. Loads of studies have proven that people leave treatments midway, owing to high costs.
But why isn't it covered by insurance?
A lot standing debate, this one has no definite answers. To say the least, mental health concerns such as depression or anxiety aren't really considered that very urgent. And moreover there is very less funding by the government for these programmes. If estimates are to be believed, India is spending only about 0.6% of its national health budget on mental health care.
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