When I was younger and single, I felt invincible. I ate what I wanted. I drank, I smoked. I didn’t really think about what any of that was doing to my body. I was young, I felt fine, and I suppose that was enough for me then.
I stopped smoking when I got pregnant with my first child at 32. I think that was also when the way I looked at my health started to change. I had someone else to think about now. Someone was going to depend on me. Then I had my second child at 42, and that made me think about my age a little more. By the time I was nearing 50, I knew I couldn’t keep treating my body the way I did when I was younger.
Nothing drastic happened. I just started paying attention to things I never used to think about. I watched my steps. I tried to get at least seven hours of sleep. Since I work from home, I can sit in front of my computer for hours, so I have to remind myself to get up once in a while and move. I became more conscious of what I ate, too.
These are pretty ordinary things. But I certainly wasn’t thinking about any of them at 25.
These days, health also means thinking about money. I’m a freelancer, so if I can’t work, I don’t earn the way I normally would. And then there are the medical bills themselves. I have PhilHealth, but I’ve mostly dealt with medical expenses as they happen. I know this from my occasional bouts with amoebiasis. When it gets bad enough, I end up in the ER. You get treated, you pay the bill. Thankfully, so far, I’ve been able to manage it that way.
But I’m 53 now, and I’ve started wondering whether I should be better prepared.
I was going through GInsure on GCash and saw Oona All-in-One Health Insurance. I spent some time looking at what it covers. There are different plans, with benefits that can include daily hospital cash during confinement, cash benefits for covered critical illnesses such as cancer, heart attack, and stroke, and benefits for accidental death or disability. You can also get coverage for a spouse, child or parent.
For me, the hospital and critical illness coverage would probably matter most. I know what it means to have a medical bill come up unexpectedly. What I haven’t really had to deal with, thankfully, is being unable to work for a long period because I’m sick. As a freelancer, that’s something I have to think about too.
Oona is available through GInsure in the GCash app. You can look through the plans, choose your coverage, answer the health declaration questions, review everything, and pay through GCash. I went through the exclusions and conditions carefully before deciding what worked for me.
I’m still guilty of sitting in front of my computer for too long. I still have to remind myself to get up and walk around, and there are nights when getting seven hours of sleep doesn’t quite happen. But I pay more attention now. I have children, work, bills, and a family I still need to provide for.
And I certainly don’t feel invincible anymore.
