These holidays, think about health insurance

While some Kenyans travel upcountry to see their extended family or proceed for the December holidays, others will choose to stay at home.

But nearly all will include space for festive indulgence and shopping. Or what is December without good food and gifts?

We all know that in January, the familiar cycle of repentance, characterised by joining a new gym, cutting out certain foods from our diet, rigorous financial planning and overly ambitious New Year resolutions, will follow.

But come March, many will have dropped these plans only to revisit them after yet another fun-filled December.

We claim to treasure our health and wealth, but do we, really? Health and wealth are two closely connected concepts that require long-term planning.

Quick fixes don’t work but instead keep us in an unhealthy ‘sin-repent-repeat’ vicious cycle.

Having worked in health insurance for more than a decade, where my key concern is the health and wealth of my clients, this is something I have seen all too often.

December indulgence is not wrong, but we need to move away from the one-year planning cycle and plan for a lifetime. We can protect our wealth and health and still have fun.

The three basic tenets of wealth management are: create wealth, preserve it and transfer it. This involves investing in skills, knowledge and technology that increase your income at work or in business.

It is followed by managing your consumption to ensure you grow your savings in line with your income growth.

Then you need to direct your savings into investments that preserve its value and are easily transferable to the next generation.

Investing in health isn’t that straightforward. Sure, we might keep fit, eat well and get enough sleep, but illness often comes unannounced.

And when it does, it affects not just our physical health, but our finances as well.

In some cases, family and friends have to chip in to settle our medical bills, disrupting their finances too. This is especially the case today with the alarming increase in non-communicable diseases, which are expensive to treat due to the specialised care they require.

But it need not be a hit-and-miss game. Health insurance can make it less stressful and more predictable.

However, the World Bank notes that only 20 per cent of Kenyans have access to medical coverage. For some of the people without cover, it is due to affordability.

Fortunately, a slew of microinsurance products with manageable premiums are coming into the market. For others, it is due to lack of information or a misunderstanding.

Whichever the case, the lack of health insurance leaves people without cover vulnerable to medical bills, which are the single-largest documented cause of poverty in Kenya.

Ministry of Health statistics, published in 2016, estimate that one million Kenyans are driven into poverty every year by unaffordable medical bills.

Health insurance is not just about your health, but also the wealth of your loved ones. It’s not about making you richer, but protecting your finances and of those around you from the crippling effects of medical bills.

That is why a solid health and wealth plan must not miss the crucial component of health insurance. This is some food for thought for December.