SECURING THE FUTURE

The day I knew the importance of health insurance was when my partner fell very sick and I was not having any money on me at that particular time. It was more disheartening knowing that she could not use my HMO and we had to really struggle to get her medical help. After that event I started paying more attention to insurances, not just health but also property insurance. I decided to start learning about them because in this part of the world, very few people talk about it or even try to do it. I do not think I have ever heard my dad talk about insurance in all the years I have lived with him, so yeah it’s that strange in this part of the world and even up till now I still have a lot to learn about it.

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash

I understand that these kinds of things can be financially straining from the beginning, but I believe it gets easier as time goes on. I remember a really big trader in my estate whose store was involved in a fire accident. The fire was caused by area boys trying to make trouble until things went out of hand. Not just his shop, but almost every store around that market got burnt. According to him, the goods he had ran into hundreds of millions and the only reason he survived that loss was the insurance he had. He said he started doing it because he had spent over 10 years abroad before coming back to start and when he started he made sure insurance covered his business. Although he could not recover everything, 70% was covered by his insurance company. Whenever I pass by that market I still see a lot of the shops around there burnt and sometimes even hear people talk about that tragedy and how they had stores there but have been unable to recover from that loss.

I believe a backup plan is necessary in this day and age not just for businesses but for individuals as well. When I looked into a lot of these payment plans, I saw that they are not all that expensive except that you are already living above your means. For example you can get your personal HMO for as low as 50,000 naira a year in some hospitals which would cover most of your basic hospital needs. It might be just basic, but think about it, is it not better to get basic health care first to save your life when in danger than not getting anything at all because you lack the funds at that time. I have been faced with a lot of these predicaments so I know how frustrating and heartaching it can be when you are sick and can not go to the hospital because there are not a lot of free healthcare services in this part of the world. Tragedies happen when we least expect, and a billionaire can become poor in a day, it’s the cruelty of life, and although we can’t prepare for it, we can try to do something about it to reduce the pressure if it ever happens.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 204 EPISODE 3