group insurance
Group insurance covers many people under one policy, which makes it far cheaper per person and is why cover through work is worth having.
In plain English
An insurer pricing you individually has to worry about you specifically. An insurer covering four hundred employees at once is pricing an average, and averages are far less frightening than individuals.
That is the whole economics of group insurance, and it is why cover through your employer, your cooperative, your professional body or your association is usually dramatically cheaper than buying the same protection alone. Frequently there is no medical examination and far less scrutiny, which matters enormously if your health would make individual cover expensive or impossible.
So take it. If your employer offers group life or group health cover, particularly where they pay part of the premium, it is close to free money and a surprising number of Nigerians never enrol.
But understand the catch, because there is one and it is significant.
Group cover usually belongs to the group. Leave the job and the cover generally leaves with you, at the exact moment your income has also stopped. People who relied on it for years find themselves uninsured at forty five, when buying individually is far more expensive.
Take the group cover. And hold a modest policy of your own that nobody can take away.
You are covered through your employer for eleven years and never buy a personal policy. You are made redundant at forty seven. The cover ends that month, and buying the same protection individually now costs several times what it would have at thirty six.
Questions people ask
Why is group insurance cheaper?
Because the insurer is pricing an average across many people rather than assessing each individual, and the administration is shared.
Does it end when I leave the job?
Usually yes, and immediately. Some policies allow conversion to an individual policy, so ask before you leave, not after.
Should I still buy my own cover?
Yes, at least a modest policy. Anything that depends on your employer disappears at the moment your income does.
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