Hank
The seller greeted me warmly and welcomed me into his office. I had told him I was on the verge of turning sixty, the time in one’s life when a productive asset metamorphosises overnight into a Kafkaesque creature, bearing no semblance to one’s previous self.
Without social security, wealth, or medical cover, this phase of one’s life is fraught with anxiety about the future for most. I needed a medical cover, a safety net to support me if I fell ill, so that my family wouldn’t bear the “catastrophic expenditure” which the National Health Policy acknowledges as a major contributor to poverty.
Soothing my frayed nerves, the seller pointed out a safety net in the display window. ‘That’s for you, it provides medical cover of ₹5L, all paid by govt,’ he said, smiling.
I was transported to a state of bliss. It is human not to want to die early and prolong one’s life with medical treatment when one needs it. I immediately reached out for the net, but somehow could not get to it. He explained patiently, ‘You will see it at a distance, always above you, until you turn seventy. After that, it will find its place below you.’
Crestfallen, I pleaded that wouldn’t work for most Indians as on an average Indians are expected to live less than seventy years. At sixty, their incomes dwindle, or altogether vanish. World Bank estimates there are 93mn people in the 60-69 age group, and only 45mn in the 70-80 age group. How many would cross over to the other side?
