Next: Insurance
Health claims: the clocks and the refusals
A promise tested only at the hospital desk. The rules set clocks on the insurer, a date after which the file closes, and what a refusal has to carry.
24 min
beginner
Insurance is not an investment
The bundled-policy pitch taken apart with simple arithmetic: where each rupee of premium goes, why the seller pushes so hard, and where to complain.
3 lessons · about 22 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11
One job per product
Protection and growth are different jobs. A bundled policy asks one premium to do both, so the only honest question is what each rupee is doing.
6 min
The illustration, decoded
Benefit illustrations, the 4% and 8% columns and the charge caps — arithmetic anyone can redo on a phone, and the reason the pitch is so hard.
8 min
The pitch, and where to complain
The March sales script taken apart line by line, and the complaint ladder that runs free from the insurer's own desk up to the Insurance Ombudsman.
8 min
Check yourself
7 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.
What changed recently
Dated commentary on this topic — a Budget change, a new rule, a scam pattern.
Sources
- IRDAI — unit linked product rules, benefit illustration norms and master circulars — Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India · checked 2026-08-11
- IRDAI policyholder education portal — Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India · checked 2026-08-11
- Bima Bharosa — IRDAI's online grievance portal — Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India · checked 2026-08-11
- Insurance Ombudsman Rules, 2017 — Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance · checked 2026-08-11
- Small savings schemes — quarterly interest rate notifications — Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance · checked 2026-08-11