What is Health Insurance?
Health insurance is a form of insurance that covers illness-related medical expenses. Some lesser-known facts about India’s health insurance products that could encourage many individuals to purchase a policy are:
- Individual Insurance Policies And Floaters With No Upper Age Limit:
It is customary for employees to be covered by their employer’s health insurance policy. But what happens when one retires and has the greatest need for health insurance? Nowadays, some policies will cover this regardless of age.
- Claims for cashless treatment and reimbursement:
There is a misconception that cashless insurance claims require individuals to use only networked institutions when submitting insurance claims. When selecting a non-networked hospital, the option to pay out-of-pocket and submit a reimbursement claim remains open.
- Nursery Treatments and Home Treatment:
Insurers now cover “domiciliary hospitalisation” or treatment at home, subject to certain conditions, if a patient suffers from a disease or injury that would ordinarily necessitate hospitalisation but is unable to do so due to their state of health or the lack of availability of a room.*
- Recharge Of The Sum Insured:
Certain insurers offer the option to renew the coverage amount if it’s been used up by prior claims, ensuring it’s available for future unrelated claims during the policy term.
- Brief Claims:
Claim procedures continue to be simplified and expedited. There have been instances where contactless discharges have occurred within a couple of hours. From admission to the release, all that is required is regular contact with the assistance desk.
- No Pre-Policy Medical Exams Required:
Few medical insurance providers offer policies tailored to the large population of uninsured or underinsured individuals due to the results of pre-policy medical exams, the presence of certain pre-existing conditions, or advanced age. These companies do not require pre-policy medical examinations for prospects of any age or coverage amount.
- Coverage of Maternity Expenses:
Some companies offer health insurance policies covering maternity expenses, including hospitalisation for delivering the child, prenatal (examinations, tests, medication, etc.) and post-natal (follow-up visits, medication, etc.) expenses. These policies cover the newborn’s medical expenses for 90 days after birth. The waiting period for these policies is only nine months.
- Other Lesser-Known Appealing Characteristics:
A little comparison could get you a policy that covers medical treatment anywhere in the world, on a cashless claim basis, for certain illnesses; an increase in the sum insured of up to 50% as a “cumulative” bonus for five claim-free years; daily allowances in the form of a lump sum for each day of hospitalisation towards “non-medical” expenses such as consumables, transportation etc. Individual health insurance and health insurance plans for families offer these features.
Policy Exclusions:
Finally, carefully review the exclusions in your health insurance policy. These are situations or conditions under which your insurance won’t provide coverage. Understanding these exclusions is crucial to avoid surprises when you need to make a claim.
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*Standard T&C Apply
‘Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. For more details on benefits, exclusions, limitations, terms, and conditions, please read the sales brochure/policy wording carefully before concluding a sale.‘
