As medical costs and hospitalization charges soar yearly, the need for health insurance is ever-growing. No one nowadays wants unnecessary medical expenses, which often create a big dent in people’s pockets.
So, what exactly is health insurance? Health insurance is a type of service provided by insurance agencies, which can be private or governmental. Individuals are insured against payment of expenses incurred in any medical-related emergency. Thus, the health insurance plan covered under your health insurance offers various medical services, ranging from Ambulance charges to Bed and Ward charges to Surgeries and Checkups.
This means that individuals opting for health insurance will not need to pay any money incurred in the procedures and medical expenses and will either get reimbursed or in many cases, get cashless treatment. From a superficial view, health insurance looks very simple, which is paying money in the form of premiums against your medical coverage; however, there are many complexities within health insurance documents and policy plans, and that is why individuals need proper knowledge regarding its various aspects.
Understanding Health Insurance Coverage and its Types
Coverage offered within a health insurance policy could be of various types, so individuals need to have a fair idea about the different types of coverage offered. This way, an individual can efficiently choose the coverage that suits his needs and make informed decisions on its various aspects.
However, before explaining different kinds of coverage, it is essential to know the various types of health insurance coverage of health insurance policies available in the market.
Personal Health Insurance Coverage Plans
Individual health insurance plans are plans specifically for persons wanting to opt out of a health insurance policy. These policies are made so that they can be covered under your health insurance. Major things associated with any individual’s medical coverage demands include surgeries, procedures, OPD, and Hospitalization.
The major difference between different kinds of health insurance policies and an Individual health insurance policy is the low cost associated with it which can be quite high for other types of policies. However, individuals have options to customize the plans according to their needs and add various things to it, which can sometimes make these plans expensive too.
Family Health Insurance Plans
Family insurance policies are health insurance policies specifically designed for families. They usually cover 5-10 individuals, depending on the size of the family. Furthermore, since these plans specifically cater to families, provisions like maternity and childcare benefits are usually not present in Individual health insurance policies.
These health insurance policies offer an excellent way for a person to get health insurance coverage at a budget-friendly rate, thus making it easy for persons with families to avoid the unnecessary hassle of purchasing insurance individually for all members.
Senior Citizen Health Insurance
Senior Citizen Health insurance plans provide coverage for individuals over 60 Years of age. These plans cover pre-existing conditions common with old age, such as Arthritis, Diabetes, and Alzheimer's.
These inclusions of preexisting conditions are covered under your health insurance under one umbrella of Senior Citizen Health Insurance, which provides a very lucrative opportunity for senior citizens as the type of coverage is not covered under your health insurance by regular insurance plans.
However, since insurance is a risk-based market that works by pooling risk and distributing it to whoever needs it the most, old people, as they are high-risk individuals, tend to fetch higher premiums than regular health insurance.
Coverage Offered by Health Insurance and Types of Medical Services Covered
Coverage under your health insurance generally means that it offers a wide range of medical benefits and services targeted to provide individuals with financial assistance in case of such complications. While generally, this is exactly what a health insurance policy does, depending on the type of policy purchased, coverage can also vary.
Preventive Care Coverage: Preventive Care covered under your health insurance comprises the most basic services that a health institution offers, including annual checkups, inoculations, and preventive screening for diseases that can sometimes be life-threatening, such as Cancer and HIV.
These benefits are offered mostly by all insurance agencies, as apart from benefiting customers, these services also benefit the agency offering insurance. For instance, regular vaccines and checkups give the company a fair idea of a person's health condition, and with respect to that, they can adjust future premiums.
Prescription Benefits: Prescriptions are also some of a health insurance plan's most widely availed services. The things covered under your health insurance are various types of medicines and medical aids that a doctor writes for a patient to cure or prevent any disease. Many health insurance policies, instead of reimbursing the amount spent on prescriptions, bring various pharmaceutical agencies into their fold, and thus individuals can go and purchase prescriptions from these stores without paying any fee.
Maternity Benefits: While not all health insurance plans offer maternity benefits to their consumers, individuals opting for a family or maternity plan usually have the benefit of Maternity benefits. These benefits typically include all the expenses incurred in hospitalization, prescriptions, and C-section procedures, if any.
Management of Chronic Diseases: Many individuals purchasing a health insurance policy can typically add on benefits, including coverage of chronic ailments. So, individuals who suffer from conditions like Asthma, Diabetes, or Arthritis can opt to go with these types of plans. The coverage will typically include visits to doctors, prescriptions, and medical aids if any to ensure smooth management and control of these diseases
Choosing the Right Insurance Policy
Choosing the right type of insurance policy is essential to ensure that you get the best and the most efficient plan for yourself. Thus, this section will guide you through some simple points you can keep in mind while purchasing a health insurance policy.
Before taking out any health insurance policy, individuals need to familiarize themselves with different plans available in the market. These plans can essentially help you master the information regarding health insurance.
There are various plans available in the market, ranging from individual to family policies, as discussed above in detail. What you will need to do is carefully read the services offered by various policies, assess your needs, and then jump on to purchase a policy.
Lastly, you will need to consider whether there is additional health insurance coverage by incorporating add-ons to your policy depending on the individual. For instance, newly married people may want to add maternity benefits to their policy, and people in their thirties will need to ensure that the policy covered under their health insurance covers children appropriately.
Conclusion
All in all, benefits covered under your health insurance in India envelopes different protection plans for assorted medical services needs. From individual health care coverage to basic sickness cover and maternity benefits, various inclusion choices are accessible to people and families.
Also, backup plans offer different extra inclusion choices to improve the extent of inclusion and provide monetary security against unanticipated health-related crises. When picking a healthcare coverage supplier, factors like case settlement proportion, network medical clinics, inclusion choices, and client support should be considered to guarantee sufficient inclusion and bother-free case settlement.
By choosing a legitimate guarantor with a high case settlement proportion and thorough inclusion benefits, people can successfully protect their well-being and monetary prosperity.
