QubeHealth card offers credit of Rs 10 lakh with no interest for medical expenses: Should you get it?

If you are an employee with a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 or more and your company has tied up with QubeHealth, a Mumbai-based health/fintech company, you can now use a card that charges no interest for medical spends. Based on the ‘buy now, pay later’ concept, the card allows credit of up to Rs 10 lakh per employee, exclusively for healthcare-related expenses. You have up to two years to pay back the amount through no-cost EMIs.

“An individual can avail of credit that is 1-7 times his monthly salary and use the card for himself, his family, even non-blood relations or pets. However, it is not a retail product and you can get it only through your employer, who needs to sign up with us,” says Chris George, Co-founder and CEO of QubeHealth, which launched the card in November last year. The company has tied up with 180 corporates and, by the end of next month, would have deployed 30,000 cards giving Rs 100 crore in credit line.

Qubecard aims to ease the process of out-of-pocket medical expenditure, which is especially useful in India, where 63% of all healthcare spending is out-of-pocket expenditure (OoPE), according to the 2021 Niti Aayog report. While 30% of the population remains uninsured, even for those who are insured, many procedures are not covered and they pay from their pockets.

The card is powered by Visa and RuPay, and can be used to pay for any health or medical expense, including medicines, diagnostics, physical and mental health consultations, wellness, dental or eye procedures, assisted pregnancy, hospital or clinic bills, physiotherapy, etc.

What it does not include is gym or spa usage, or any other non-medical expense. While QubeHealth has tied up with over 11,000 hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres, the card can be used at any medical outlet. It is free for life, with the employee not required to pay anything at all. “Only the employer has to pay an annual subscription of `450 per person on behalf of the employee,” says George. The credit line can be activated by downloading the app through the employer, linking the employee’s bank account and providing an ECS mandate. It also doesn’t need to be linked to your salary account. “If a person leaves the company, the credit line is frozen till the details of next employer are updated,” says George.

On the flip side, the new employer may not offer the benefit and employees in lower salary brackets may be unable to avail of a high credit. Besides, it is no substitute for insurance plans. However, it does provide easy access to large sums in an eventuality at no cost, and hence, it may be a good idea to opt for it.