Print

Nobody wants to halt their life or work because of ill health and wish to stay happy all the time. But, the escalating count of diseases and their mounting cost of treatments have become a concern today. Even a single visit to doctor can suck your wallet. Health insurance in India has emerged like a savior for all. Taking care of your well being as well as your pocket, it has made things simpler for all. It pays off your heavy medical bills, consultation fees, accident or emergency case charges. Helping out to shoulder the financial burdens, mediclaim in India comes with easy buying and satisfying assurance.

Health Policies in India

Individual - Designed to cover an individual against various illnesses with cashless hospitalization and other features.

Family Floater Mediclaim - Covers family members against diseases under a single plan, this cover offers a fixed sum insured for the members that can be either availed by individual member or as a sum total for treatment of one person.

Surgery & Critical Illness - Availed as a standalone plan or a rider incase of treatment against serious illnesses like- cancer, kidney failure, heart attack, paralysis etc.


Senior Citizen - Covering you when you turn old and unable to resist severe sickness because of your growing age. According to IRDA norms, every insurer needs to provide cover for people up to the age of 65 years.


Preventive Healthcare - In charge of concerns related to expensive preventive care treatments which include consultation charges and other tests or x-ray fees concessions

 

Benefits and Features

For treasuring well being one must have a comprehensive health policy. From individual to family floater plan, all come with some features and benefits; let’s check a few major covers-


Cashless treatment - Every insurer displays a network of hospital where when treated the insured does not require to pay a penny from his pocket unless it is a voluntary discount case.


Pre and post hospitalization - Under the medical plan in India, the insured is paid for the pre and post hospitalization charges which include tenure of 30 to 60 days depending on the insurer.


Ambulance charges - The policy holder is free from burden of transportation or ambulance charges.


Pre-existing disease cover -After a waiting period of 2-4 years, various policies offer a cover against the pre-existing diseases -e.g. - diabetes, hypertension etc.


No Claim Bonus - NCB or no claim bonus is a benefit provided if the insured does not claim for any treatment in the previous year. Benefit could be in any form, either an increment in the sum assured or a discount in premium.


Medical checkup -Free check up is provided by few insurers if there is a good history of no claim bonus.


Tax Benefits - If you are paying premium for medical policy then you are liable to get tax rebate under section 80D of Income Tax Act for a maximum value of – Rs.15000 for regular and Rs.20000 for senior citizen.


Co-Payment - Providing you option to cut short your premium amount, medical insurance offers co-payment option wherein there is a define amount of voluntary deductibles mentioned in the policy which are paid by the insured. So in case of treatment, some amount is paid by the insured and rest by the insurer.


Critical illness cover - You can extend your cover by opting for critical illness or various riders depending on your age and medical history of your family.


Criteria To Choose Best Health Insurance


Caps and sub-limits - Imposition of sub limits, Co-payments or other caps might reduce the premium you pay for the insurance policy but would limit the benefits in a similar or a worse proportion.


Claim settlement record -This might be an ultimate decider for weighing the insurance plan’s credentials. Although this information might not be available publicly or might be present in a manipulated state, experts expect it to be of more value to the customers in near future than it is currently.


Scope of coverage -Weighing premium vs. plan’s benefits is more necessary while defining the plan to be a comprehensive one. Buying a plan just because it’s cheaper than other plans is bad decision making.


Renewability - Most of the diseases confront you after you reach a certain age which is bracketed as “old”, therefore it becomes highly important to buy a plan which has a very high or a lifetime renewability so that you are not left on your own, when you need a medical cover the most.


Cashless Hospital Network - Checking for the hospitals around you those are covered as a network hospital by the plan you consider is imperative, as this allows you to avail the service of that hospital without getting into the hassles of claim reimbursements from the insurer, rather benefiting from the cashless facility given by the network hospitals.


Premium Loading - We would suggest one to always check the terms and conditions pertaining to premium loading, this might save you from paying a high incremental premium once you make a claim for the sun insured. The best practice would be to verify the premium fluctuation data of the plan for previous 5 years the least.


Internal team - Check for the plans from insurers which have an internal team for mediclaim, this might help in expediting the claim settlement process to a good extent.


Floater (family) size - Everyone has a different family size, one should always look for the family floater size allowed under the plan before considering buying it, so that no member is left uncovered for health related problems.