Since the coronavirus outbreak, people have understood the importance of health insurance. Apart from the pandemic, environmental conditions, seasonal diseases and illnesses, and worsening lifestyle pose many threats to one’s health. A medical insurance policy protects you from the financial crises born out of any such resulting health issues.
With the rising cost of healthcare services, it can be overwhelming to bear the medical expenses from your pocket. The importance of health insurance cannot be stressed enough during a sudden medical emergency. If you are new to insurance or always struggling to understand about the terminologies behind medical insurance policies, this article has you covered.
Basic types of health insurance policies
A health insurance policy provides you financial coverage for medical expenses like pre-and-post hospitalisation, room rent, medical bills, ambulance charges, daycare treatment, etc. There are two basic types of health insurance policies:
Individual mediclaim insurance
The most basic plan, also known as the hospitalisation plan, provides coverage against the cost of treatment when an individual gets admitted to a hospital due to illnesses or accidents. You do not need to incur any expenses from your side if you have a good mediclaim Insurance policy with a suffcient cover.
Critical illness insurance
This policy is specially made for critical illnesses and covers only the conditions under the critical diseases category. The general mediclaim policy does not cover critical illnesses like chronic heart diseases, cardiovascular diseases, strokes, cancer, etc.
Family health insurance
You can also buy one single health insurance policy for your entire family. These policies have affordable premiums and covers all the family members under one sum insured. You can include your family members, including children, parents, and spouses, upto a specific limit in a mediclaim policy.
What is cashless insurance?
In a cashless mediclaim policy, you can get cashless claim settlement as all the expenses are settled by the insurance company with the hospital directly. This facility is only available if the hospital comes under the network of insurance provider. Otherwise, you will have to get the reimbursement later from your insurance provider.
Why Buy Medical Insurance?
Critical illnesses are unpredictable and unforeseen events that can happen to anyone. It is crucial to buy a health insurance policy to avoid the financial strain and stress caused by such circumstances. With scaling medical costs day by day, it is difficult to bear the expenses of medical treatments, even for minor hospitalisation. So you can buy an individual health insurance plan or a family health insurance policy per your needs and income.
How can you choose the best medical insurance plan?
You must understand and look for many critical factors to select the best medical insurance policy. Here are a few such factors to look out for:
- Range of critical illnesses it covers and if it provides you with quality protection.
- The Flexibility provided by the insurance companies for choosing your coverage within the affordable premium.
- Look for a policy that does not increase your premium during the policy period, even if your health condition changes.
- The duration and renewability duration of the policy keeps you covered during old age.
- The network hospital range of the insurance provider
- If the network hospitals are located close to your residence
- Look for the right coverage, and see whether it secures you against a wide range of medical problems and provides other add-on benefits.
- Compare the plans and benefits with quotes from other insurance companies online to choose the best plan for yourself.
Mediclaim plan or critical illness plan- which one to choose?
In simple terms, a mediclaim plan from a good insurance provider will reimburse all the hospitalisation expenses and settle the bills with network hospitals with the cashless mediclaim option.
On the other hand, in a critical illness insurance plan, you will get a lump sum payment on being diagnosed with a critical illness, and hospitalisation is not a precondition for that. So you can use the money as you want. For example, if you cannot continue working due to a critical illness, you can cover your loss of income with a critical illness insurance cover.
You need both policies to have a full-fledged safety cover for you and your family. One will cover you against the hospital costs and expenses, and the other will be like a complete safety cover for your future income and illnesses.
In conclusion
A medical insurance policy is crucial for you and your family. As people are still unaware of the importance of health insurance, they tend to skip taking the numerous advantages they can get out of them. They give you peace of mind and help you lead a normal life when medical emergencies strike.
It is always better to compare and contrast various health insurance policies to choose the best plan for your family that caters to your medical needs holistically.