Medical Loan
What is medical loan
Since the government does not provide adequate health care facilities to its citizen, people who can afford, buy medical insurance to meet any medical emergency in terms of costs. As per an estimate only around 18% of the Indian population is covered by self bought health insurance. For those who are not covered under any medical insurance, medical loans have been a boon as it is not possible for everyone to arrange huge funds at such a short notice in case of medical emergency. Even in cases where one has the medical insurance but the cost of medical treatment needed exceeds the amount of insurance available, one may have to arrange the incremental funds from his own sources within short time. Everyone is not so resourceful to be able to arrange the huge money needed in such cases immediately and then the medical loan comes handy in such situation.
Purpose of availing medical loan
Due to consistent double digit inflation for medical treatment consistently, availing medical treatment with a good hospital has gone out of reach of a common man. Even cost for treatment for a small ailment costs thousands of rupees if hospitalisation is needed. Medical loan can be availed to meet medical emergency like accident. Medical loan can also be availed for undergoing a surgery which may not necessarily be an emergency like situation but one still has to arrange huge funds for it.
Who provides medical loan
You can avail a personal loan which is an all purpose loan and for which even the lender does not insist and ask about the end use of the money. So a personal loan taken for medical treatment can be called a medical loan. There are certain organisations like Credihealth which provide medical loan to its users. One can apply for medical loans through Credihealth t ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50 lakh repayable over a period ranging from six months to 48 months. Credithealth has tie ups with many banks and Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) to provide medical loans to its customers.
Start ups like Arogya Finance also help people find medical loan. This start up gives loan after taking into account the overall credit worthiness and earnings of the entire family whereas banks and NBFCs give medical loans based on the credit history and earning capacity of the loan applicant. It provides medical loans ranging from Rs. 30,000 to 50 lakhs repayable over period ranging from six months to 48 months depending on your convenience.
Majority of the banks, especially the new age banks, are aggressive in providing the personal loan for medical purposes. There are certain financial institutions who have designed medical loans to meet the cost of any medical treatment. There are institutions like Fullterton India which has online platform to check your eligibility and to apply for medical loan. Since the entire process is online, the turnaround time is very short and as the time of essence in case of medical loan, it meets its purpose. You can upload the documents needed for medical loan and then lender is able to give you in principle approval for the loan applied based on your eligibility instantly.
Other NBFC like Bajafinserv is also very aggressive in providing medical loan. Its entire process including access to your account is made available online to ensure quick approval and disbursal of
the medical loan immediately as is needed. It also provides flexibility in repayment through its various innovative repayment options.
Who can avail medical loan
Any person with regular source of income can avail the medical loan. He may be a salaried or may be self employed with regular source of income. Generally for salaried people the maximum age upto which you can apply for medical loan is 58 years or the age of retirement a per your employment rules. Since self employed do not have any retirement age and generally work beyond the retirement age so for them a higher age limit of 65 is set for availing the medical loan. The medical loan can be availed for the medical treatment/surgery for any member in the family.
Documents needed for medical loan
Medical loans are like any other personal loan and therefore are given without insisting for any tangible security or guarantee of third party. Since no asset is offered to the lender as security, the processing time gets reduced substantially. However the borrower has to give some basic Know Your Customer (KYC) documents and income documents before the medical loan is approved.
The KYC documents are the same for all type of borrower of medical loan, whether you are salaried or self employed. For KYC you need to produce identity proof as well as proof for your residence. Any document which has your photograph on it with residential address like voter ID, Aadhaar card, Driving licence can be used for both the purposes. However for identity alone one can submit PAN card, ration card etc. in addition to any of the above mentioned documents. For the address proof you can submit copy of telephone or electricity bills, property tax receipts, society maintenance bill or leave and licence agreement in case you are staying in a rented premised.
For income proof the salaried have to submit copy of salary slips, form no. 16/Income Tax Return. However the self employed borrowers have to submit more elaborate set of documents for availing medical loan. They have to submit copy of Income tax returns along with profits and loss account and balance sheet duly certified by a Chartered Accountant for latest two years. Additionally the self employed have to submit proof of place of business as well copy of membership certificate in case he is member of any professional or business body. The self employed also have to submit copies of registration certificates under local laws like shop and establishment act as well as GST/VAT. The nature and number of documents to be submitted would vary from lender to lender.
