Realizing the necessity of health insurance in today’s world, you have decided to buy a health insurance plan. But in the cluster of products available in the market, you are unable to understand which is the right product for you. Whether you should go for a cashless or reimbursement plan; should you buy an indemnity or benefit plan; or you should go for a disease specific or worldwide cover or not. In such situation it becomes imperative that you understand some basics about different types of health insurance so that it becomes easy for you to select best product that suits your needs. Different plans differ from each other in the kind of coverage they offer. They include benefits and features as per the specific health risk.
Understanding types of health covers
Cashless or reimbursement: There are two types of health insurance policies–cashless and reimbursement. In a cashless policy you don’t need to pay bills upfront to the hospitals, insurance companies directly settle bills with hospitals. In a reimbursement policy, you need to pay bills from your pocket and later you can claim the amount from the insurance company. However, it is advisable that you buy a cashless policy as you don’t have to take the hassle of retaining and collecting documents and submitting them.
Indemnity or benefit: Indemnity policies cover hospitilisation. These policies reimburse room rent, doctor fee and other hospitilisation expenses. On the other hand, benefit policies pay lump sum amount if you are diagnosed with the disease you are covered for. It is advisable that your first policy should be a basic indemnity plan. After this you can look at specific plans such as critical illness covers.
Top up plans: Medical inflation is on the rise hence, you need to have large covers, but if you are unable to pay high premiums then you can go for top-up plans. These plans help to reduce cost with in-built deductibles. These plans helps in enhancing sum assured at affordable price. The deductible is the amount that must be paid for treatment before the insurer pays. You can use your individual/ group policy to pay the deductible. A combination of basic and top-up policy is cheaper than a standalone indemnity cover.
Worldwide covers: There is increasing trend of going abroad for treatment but cost of it can be huge. Hence, now many health insurers have started covering treatment taken abroad. However, it is offered on large covers.
Disease specific covers: If you are suffering from any serious diseases such as diabetes than it become difficult to get health insurance. For such situation, insurers have come up with disease-specific covers. However, premium in such plans is high and hence, it is advisable that you should go for a basic cover instead of these plans.
Health insurance policies not only indemnify against medical exigencies but also help in maintaining your fitness through wellness programmes. Looking at high cost of healthcare, it may get unaffordable at any point. But if you have health insurance you will be able to afford expensive treatment.Buy health insurance with PolicyMantra and get best, suitable and affordable deal for yourself and for your family.
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