Health Insurance

Health insurance is like a contingency plan to deal with medical emergencies at any stage in life, due to illness or injury. It takes away the bite from medical expenditures, whether sudden or planned, and gears us towards timely and better medical care. It provides financial assistance against hospitalisation expenses (for a minimum of 24 hours). Mediclaim can be taken as an individual health insurance policy or as a family floater plan . It covers charges on your room, medical and diagnostic facilities, doctors and specialists, medicines, blood, oxygen, and things like pacemaker, and artificial limbs etc. Depending upon your insurer, your policy may offer Cashless facility if you visit one of their networked hospitals.

Why you need Health Insurance??

It is indubitable that Health Insurance has become an important element in one’s life owing to increasing medical costs these days & uncertain environment; it comes to your rescue acting as precautionary measure in today’s tough time while acting as a life saver boat in case of any medical contingency. If you don’t have Health Insurance, you end up paying hefty medical bills in the event of hospitalization out of illness or injury, therefore insuring your family against Health Insurance is a must thing & should surely be a part of your regular financial planning. All we have is our health which needs to be protected & taken care of by acquiring the best health insurance policy suited for us.

Types

Health Insurance Plans are segregated into three categories, firstly the Mediclaim Plans, secondly the Hospitalization Cash Policy and thirdly the Critical Care Plans.

  • Mediclaim Policy is basically a reimbursement plan offered by General Insurers wherein the insured gets reimbursed of the total bill amount of the medical expenses to the extent of an agreed sum assured. It includes the room charges, ICU charges, surgery & doctor charges etc. It includes a lot of exclusions which the policy holder must read before buying the Mediclaim. The Mediclaim includes the following two further categories:

    1) Family Floater Plan: It is a very common plan these days which covers your entire family under one premium payment giving coverage to the family members together. This plan is being offered by almost all the General Insurance Companies with a specific criterion of covering individuals in the age group between 90days and 55years.
    2) Group Mediclaim Insurance: It is the second variant of Mediclaim which covers a group of individuals simultaneously. This form of insurance includes the category of Employer’s Health Insurance Cover wherein the sum assured normally varies between Rs. 15,000 and Rs.5, 00,000.
  • Hospitalization Cash Policy is a plan offered by both Life & Non-Life Insurers wherein the Insured gets pre-determined cash benefit on a daily basis irrespective of the hospitalization expenses being incurred. It is not a fully comprehensive health insurance plan because it doesn’t cover the cost of medical treatment but pays lump sum amount to the policy holder on per day basis during the treatment/hospitalization. It acts a complimentary plan to the Mediclaim plans.
  • Critical-Care Plan: It is offered by both Life & General Insurers covering an individual for certain specified critical illnesses like cancer, stroke etc. This is also offered as a rider by Life Insurance companies for quite some time now attached to their Life Insurance Plans. You must take a cover either as a rider or as a standalone plan in your portfolio.

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