Do You Have a Suitable Medical Plan?

Only people with experience will be able to tell you that falling seriously ill is just the beginning of problems. This is because the treatment cost, over the years, has become expensive, and it can deplete all your life-long savings quickly.

Thankfully, health insurance ensures that expensive medical bills are completely or at least partially taken care of thereby unburdening you from stress. How do you know you have suitable health insurance or a medical plan?

To answer that question, you must first understand what health insurance is, what are the basic benefits and add on benefits that can be availed under a health insurance policy and how you should choose a health insurance provider.

Health insurance, in a nutshell, is a policy that offers to cover the expenses incurred during hospitalization or surgery. Most health insurance providers offer medical plans that cover expenses incurred during pre-hospitalization, day hospitalization, and post-hospitalization. The insurance provider either reimburses expenses to the policyholder, provided all invoices are submitted within the stipulated period or directly pays the institution providing medical care to the insurance holder.

A majority of people often wonder whether purchasing a health insurance policy is even necessary. After all, what are the chances of a sudden hospitalization or a surgical procedure?  Unfortunately, lifestyle changes over the last couple of generations have made health insurance a very important financial goal. While a healthy lifestyle can definitely protect you from health issues, it cannot curb them completely. So, having an insurance policy helps during an unexpected medical crisis.

Now for the important bit. Make sure you have considered the following points before buying an insurance policy:

Sum Assured

Find out what is the sum assured by your insurance provider and factor in whether that sum is enough to protect your family from a medical emergency. If you have older parents, you might need a higher sum insured.

Number of Persons Covered

Health insurance providers offer medical plans to cover your entire family. There are individual, family floater, senior citizens, and maternity health insurance plans. Find out which one suits your needs before purchasing a medical plan.

Eligibility Criteria

Some health insurance providers do not offer medical plans for people over or below a certain age. This also stands for the history of health diseases - these criteria can affect your premium or your eligibility for a medical plan altogether.

Specific Plans

Certain health insurance plans cater specifically toward terminal illness. This allows people who have been terminally ill or have the gene for terminal illness to protect themselves from expensive medical care.

Hospital Network

There's no point in having a health insurance policy if you or a family member are admitted to a hospital that is not covered under your health insurance provider’s network. Make sure your insurance provider has a decent network of affiliated hospitals while considering them for purchasing a medical plan.

Add-On Covers and Benefits

Find out what kind of additional benefits or covers are offered by your health insurance provider. Benefits like cashless hospitalization also prove to be very beneficial during a medical emergency.

Claim Ratio

Some medical insurance providers have a bad reputation for shelling out a payout when you are in dire need of money for your medical expenses. Browse through customer testimonials and online reviews to understand the claim settlement ratio of the health insurance provider.

If your medical plan can check off every single item on the above list, you can rest assured that you have a suitable medical plan.

Learn more about the waiting period in medical insurance