Health Insurance
Health insurance is a type of protection that covers medical expenses that can arise due to an illness or an unfortunate accident. These expenses could be related to hospitalisation costs, cost of medicines, diagnostics expenses, doctor consultation fees and ambulance charges etc. Taking health insurance is must for an individual or family given the rising costs of treatment and hospitalization.
What are the types of Health Insurance?
There are two types of health insurance - Mediclaim plans and Critical illness insurance plans.
Mediclaim Plans
Mediclaim plans are the most basic type of health insurance plans available in India. They cover the cost of treatment when you are hospitalized due to some sickness or accident. The payout is made on expenses incurred in the hospital by submission of original bills. Mostly Mediclaim plans are cash less and payment is made to the hospital directly by the insurance company.
There are broadly 3 types of mediclaim plans -
1. Individual Mediclaim Plans - It covers you financially for the liabilities of hospitalization costs in the event of accident or illness.
2. Family Floater plans - It covers the entire family through a single policy.
3. Group Mediclaim plan - It covers the financial liabilities of hospitalization costs in the event of accident or illness for a group of people. This is the most commonly bought plan by the corporates for its employees.
Critical Illness Insurance Plans
Critical Illness Insurance Plans cover a range of life threatening diseases which might require prolonged treatment at hospital or at home. Unlike mediclaim plans, the payout (critical illness cover amount) is made immediately on diagnosis of the critical illness without having to submit any medical bills. While the mediclaim policy pays for the hospitalization cost, critical illness plan provides you the flexibility to use the payouts for change in lifestyle expenses that may occur due to the illness, treatment at home or as a substitute for loss of income due to prolong absence from work.
One should make sure that insurance is not purchased just for the purpose of saving taxes but it should be taken for protection of the family and being tension free about their financial well being post the demise of the policyholder. Benefits of life insurance are immense and once must explore and understand the true meaning of life insurance.