Budget 2019 was expected to bring in a slew of benefits for both seniors and healthcare in India. It did bring in a brief respite by increasing the income tax slab for seniors and pensioners.
How Indian budget 2019 benefits seniors?
Yes, senior citizens above 60 years with an income up to Rs 3,00,000 per annum will pay 0% income tax. Elders above 80 need not pay income tax up to Rs.5,00,000 income p.a. category. Senior citizens between 60-80 years should pay 5% tax if their income p.a. is between Rs. 3,00,000 to 5,00,000. This would accrue a savings of Rs. 2575/-. Super Seniors aged 80 and above will pay 5% income tax if their income is between Rs. 5,00,000 to 10,00,000. This will give them a sizeable savings of Rs.7,725/-.
Apart from this, the TDS limit has been increased for senior citizens from bank and post office deposits. The TDS threshold has been increased from Rs.10,000 to 40,000. This means even without submitting Form15G, seniors will not charged with TDS as long as their income from post office and bank FD and RD deposits remains under the Rs.40,000 limit.
These tax-saving measures do benefit seniors in a significant manner helping them to pile up some hard-earned money for their senior home care services in their autumn years.
The impact of Budget 2019 on senior healthcare in India
With Budget 2019, the healthcare insurance market in India has seen some major changes. the limits of deduction for healthcare insurance have been raised for both senior and super-senior citizens. Under section 80D, there is a hike in the deduction limit for insurance premium from Rs. 30,000 to 50,000.
Apart from this, the deduction limit for medical expenditure for critical illnesses has also been increased for the elders above 60 and 80. For senior citizens up to 60 years, this limit is fixed at Rs.60,000 and for the super-seniors above 80 years, this is fixed at Rs.80,000 to 1 lakh.
The new Budget for 2019 also extends the deadline for seniors to enroll in the PMVVY-Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana scheme to March 2020. This scheme is operated by the Life Insurance Corporation of India as a pension scheme for elders above 60. Under this scheme, there is a guaranteed interest of 8% over ten years and the interest can be received on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly basis. For monthly pension, the minimum investment was 1.5lakh and maximum was 7.5 lakh. Now, this has been increased to 15 lakhs.
These moves have been welcomed by seniors as they stand to gain from the savings yielded by the increase in tax deduction limits.
How can Home healthcare service providers help ?
Seniors have numerous age-related ailments which they succumb to owing to their advancing age. Sometimes, they have to get admitted to the hospital in the ICU for critical illnesses or infections. Such a stay in the ICU of a hospital may cost Rs. 35,000 to 50,000 per day. Instead, if an ICU is set up at home by a home healthcare service provider, the cost will be as slow as Rs. 7500-10,000 per day.
Similarly, post-stroke recovery at the hospital may cost Rs. 5000 per day. In contrast, a monthly package of stroke recovery services by the home healthcare service provider is ideally only between Rs. 25,000 to 30,000.
Apart from this, home healthcare service is also covered by certain insurance providers like Bajaj Allianz, Religare Health Insurance, ICICI Lombard etc. The insurance coverage is for home or domiciliary treatment, pre and post-hospitalization, physiotherapy etc. at least 10-30% of the insured sum is provided by the healthcare insurance company.
Home healthcare services offer at least 35-50% savings over hospitalized care. Elders can take advantage of this insurance coverage with the benefits of the new Budget2019 by enlisting home healthcare service providers for their senior home care services.
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