By Dheeraj Agrawal Communication Professional
Health insurance covers your medical expenditure. It’s an agreement between a buyer and the insurance company which guarantees compensation of medical expenses in case the insured is hospitalised due to an accident or illness. There are many illness specific insurance as well in the market like a cancer cover, heart related policies and serious illness cover . You could buy a regular health insurance plan or a disease specific plan premium may differ on the nature of coverage. From hospitalisation expenses to surgery, medicines to lab tests could be a part of your insurance. You have the option of taking an individual cover or a floater plan which can cover family members as well.
Why do you need a Health Insurance?
You may have stepped out to just buy groceries or a simple walk to the nearest bus stop and meet a nasty accident or may just fall severely sick which needs hospitalisation. Health Insurance is important for tackling unforeseen, unwanted and unhappy incidents.We all know hospitalisation in our country means a hefty bill. If you are covered with health insurance your medical cost gets taken care of.
Health insurance will give you the following benefits-
Cashless treatment- Your insurance company will have a tie up with a panel of hospital networks which will facilitate cashless treatment.
Pre and Post Hospitalisation- Depending upon the plan many insurance policies cover pre and post hospitalisation expenses up to the period of 60 days.
Transportation Charge- The amount paid towards the transportation of policyholder to the hospital is covered.
No claim Bonus- If the insurer does not file a claim in the previous year he/she will get a benefit of this bonus.
Health Checkup- Many companies are now including health checkups in their policies.
Tax saver- Premium payment of health insurance gets you a tax deduction of Rs 25,000 under section 80 D of IT Act. If you buy a insurance for parents then could get a tax benefit of an additional Rs 25,000. Hence total deduction you can claim is Rs 50,000.
Know this before finalising a Health Policy
Sum Insured
Keep in mind the Sum insured should be a good amount so that it can take care of your medical emergency. Sum Insured is the amount that a policy holder gets when he/she is hospitalised. So if you have opted for a plan whose sum insured is 5 lakh so this is the maximum limit that you will be able to claim. Your premium will also depend upon the sum insured amount that you go for.
Give correct details
Don’t ever hide any medical condition of yours. Insurance agents at times ask you to not give disclosure about some medical condition so that your premium comes down. But don’t ever do that. For a few thousand you stand a chance of claim rejection at the time when you may be in need of money.
How is Premium fixed?
Insurance companies will look at various factors to determine your premium. Factors like your life history, your health record, any disease or accident. Even your family history to check hereditary problems and your lifestyle like smoking and drinking.
Companies credibility
Do check out the claim settlement ratio of a company. This tells you how efficiently the company has been processing the claim. Try finding out customer feedback and do understand the process of getting the claim.
It doesn’t matter how old or young you are you must have a health policy. If you are single then go for a basic individual health plan. In a metro city a policy with a sum insured of around Rs 5 lakh is a good option. If you stay in tier 2-3 cities then a sum insured of Rs 2-3 lakh would be good. If you are married and have children then go for a family floater plan which covers the entire family.
If you are 60 and above that means you are either retired or heading for one. In that case if you have held a corporate policy then try to port the same because as you grow older your medical expense rises and its harder to get a insurance. If you have policy from your employer then do continue the same by porting it but if you have no health policy and are not being able to buy then getting yourself included in your grown up child’s Insurance plan would be a good idea.
