Does Hair Loss Treatment Cover Under Health Insurance
One of the questions that prospective customers and policyholders ask about their health insurance coverage is about the treatment of hair loss. Alopecia, medically known as hair loss, is unfortunately NOT covered.
Hair Loss Treatment Cover In Health Insurance
The following are some of the reasons not coving behind hair loss treatment cover in health insurance.
1.Insurance Coverage is Objective in Nature
Health Insurance coverage is provided for meeting medical expenses arising out of illness and injury. Although sometimes, hair loss could be a result of an illness, injury, or a treatment, quite often, it is due to various other factors. It is true that uncontrolled hair loss may result in baldness, or other undesirable conditions, which affects physical appearance and social image, yet due to the “non-life-threatening” nature of this condition, it is not considered critical from a healthcare perspective.
2.Treatment is Cosmetic in Nature
As mentioned above, hair loss can be due to various reasons. A few of these underlying causes can be treated by medication. Surgery is required only in cases which require hair transplants. However, the surgery is cosmetic in nature, hence excluded from coverage. In recent times, many cosmetic treatments are increasingly being included by major health care insurance providers worldwide. However, hair transplant still remains excluded.
3.Alopecia Prevalence
Certain studies estimate that more than 50% of males and 40% of females are probably to suffer from some form of hair loss by the age of 50 years. According to reports, around 8,00,000 people seek some form of treatment for hair loss every year. That could translate to a huge bill for claim settlement by health care companies as the “at-risk” population is very big. Perhaps it makes greater sense to allocate such a large monetary reserve for critical care needs, instead.
How Much Does Hair Loss Treatment Cost?
Hair loss management and treatment options are quite varied. Some of them are listed below:
- Over the counter medication
- Prescription drugs
- Alternative medicine
- Surgical procedures
While medicines may be affordable, surgical procedures like hair transplant can be expensive at times. In some cases, they cost more than Rs. 2-3 lakh.
Fortunately, clinics and financial institutions, in their efforts to make such treatments more accessible and easily affordable, now offer treatment packages with deferred payment options.
Because the hair transplant procedure is costly, companies like HDFC are providing an option of EasyEMI to their customers.in EasyEMI, the amount of the procedure if huge can be paid by means of an EMI.
Conclusion
Baldness, due to uncontrolled hair loss, may not be a disease that adversely affects the body, but in current social and business settings, its effect on personality, confidence, and self-esteem is quite noticeable. In some professions like media, entertainment, and hospitality, an individual’s career might often hinge around “better scalp coverage,” thus justifying demands for the inclusion of treatment of Alopecia in healthcare.
However, taking everything into consideration, it seems exclusion of hair loss treatments from the scope of coverage may be a fair choice by healthcare providers as it upholds the founding principles of health insurance - to provide support for unforeseen medical expenses arising out of treatments for illness and injury.
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Disclaimer: This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. Readers are advised not to rely on the contents of the article as conclusive in nature and should research further or consult an expert in this regard.
