Individual Health Insurance: What you should know?

in #health7 years ago (edited)

Nowadays, getting individual health insurance has become very essential. Given the continuous change and sedentary lifestyles, the chances are higher that you may get ill or might get injured because of any mishap or accident. Thus the need for an effective health insurance policy arises. Basically, a health insurance plan offers coverage for the hospitalization cost and associated expense and helps you think more about your treatment rather the cost of the same.

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In India, there are several independent insurance companies like Max bupa health insurance, Religare, Start Health, SBI health insurance, HDFC etc. The competition in the health insurance is really huge and finding a suitable policy can be a daunting task for many. A suitable policy and that too at an affordable price is not a big deal in today's world where the internet has made everything easier for you. Basically, there are several people who go for individual health insurance plan and some look for the family floater, by understanding the needs of their consumers, insurance companies in India have introduced a wide range of effective health insurance policies. The individual health insurance plan covers a person or the policyholder and is a good option if you a single and you don’t have to pay much for this whereas a family floater plan covers the entire family under a single plan.

In India, people usually buy health insurance for a time frame of 1 or 2 years depending on the type of coverage. Apart from the basic health benefits, there are several additional benefits that you will get under an individual health insurance plan such as tax benefits. Under SEC 80 D of the income tax act, a person can get a deduction of around 15,000 on the premium amount for health insurance. In the case of a senior citizen, it can reach up to Rs. 20,000.

Basically, the cost of depends on several different factors that include the age of the person, type of plan, medical history and much more. Apart from the basic health plan, there are several health riders that you can go for, it includes critical illness riders, patient care, daily hospital cash, newborn baby cover and much more. After the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, several insurance companies started offering coverage for injuries due to terrorist attacks.

While you are buying an individual health insurance policy, it is advisable for you to go through the entire policy documents like its inclusions, exclusions and much more. You must also check the network hospitals and the claim settlement process of the company for future benefits. If you are looking for an effective individual health policy, then you must take help of an online insurance web aggregator that can offer free insurance quotes and comparison service. With the list of quotes from top insurance companies in India, you will be able to choose the best plan for yourself easily. An online insurance web aggregator will serve you with the needful quotes and allow you to compare them. You can compare plan’s features, premium, inclusion, benefits and much more.

Unknown Benefits of Health Insurance Policy
Most individuals merely assume that their insurance policy pays just for the hospitalization expenses. However, that is not usually the case as several health policies pay the bill for associated expenses too.

There are many non-publicized features in insurance that stay unused as a result of lack of awareness. Regardless of whether or not your insurance company or adviser has educated you about these features, it might be an excellent plan to browse the policy document yourself.

Daily hospital money allowance
All health policies include the value of hospitalization. However, what about the expenses incurred on, say, food or refreshments? Or, the money spent by your family, whereas traveling between the hospital and home? In any case, even these add up to a considerable quantity. Well, the answer lies with the fact that what kind of daily hospital money allowance your policy offers. Check if your policy offers these pre-fixed, per-day expenses.

Convalescence profit
Hospitalization prices apart, some corporations conjointly look out of the insured's recovery expenses. Conjointly termed as recuperating profit, this feature guarantees a payment just in case of a chronic disease.

Alternative treatment
The recent IRDA draft might nudge all corporations into covering non-allopathic varieties of treatment, like Ayurveda, Unani and medical aid, however, a number of them even do these days. As an example, New India Assurance undertakes to reimburse twenty-five of such expenses, provided the treatment is taken at a government hospital. The norms let insurers pay money for these expenses albeit the treatment has been availed at an institute that's either recognized by the government, commissioned by Quality Council of India or the other appropriate authority.

Treatment taken at home/ Domiciliary expenses
The general impression of insurance covers is that their scope is restricted to hospitalization or day-care procedures. However, several policies widen their coverage reach to incorporate in-home treatment, too which means that the treatment has been done at home as per doctor's recommendation. Primarily, this might be as a result of the fact that the patient is unable to go to a hospital. Here, the insured is also asked to submit bills from the doctor's clinic.