Buying health insurance can be a daunting, painstaking chore. But it is worth the while to put in some effort to understand its various features and go for the one best-suited to you and your family. It might make all the difference in case of a health emergency.
For this purpose, you need to answer multiple questions like: do you want individual insurance or group insurance; do you also want investment returns along with insurance; what diseases are covered, so on and so forth.
Here are five things to keep in mind before buying medical insurance:
1) Group insurance or individual insurance: Both types of insurances are available, but you need to figure out whether to opt for an individual or a group/family policy. If you are buying for a family, take proper advice on whether you would like to go for individual sum insured or a floater sum insured. A floater sum insured policy is more cost-effective as compared to an individual sum insured, but its coverage may not be enough if the total amount insured is low. Also, remember, premiums for the elderly are higher. This may drive up your premium amount for the floater policy. In such a case, it may be more practical to have a separate policy for the older members of the family.
2) Policy coverage: It is always better to read the fine print and understand what ailments are covered or not covered under your medical insurance. This will help save you from nasty surprises and bitter disputes with the insurance company later in case of any dispute. Also, remember, your past medical health history is not a reflection of what might ail you in future. So, do consider coverage for unexpected health scenarios. Ensure your insurance covers critical illnesses, accident-related injuries, and hospitalization/surgery expenses before buying medical insurance. If you want to lower your premium, you could look at excluding rare diseases and treatments like cosmetic surgery, maternity-related expenses or injury from adventure sports for which you may not require a cover.
3) Understand the premiums: The costs of healthcare services are rising exponentially every day. This makes it important to have a comprehensive health insurance cover so that timely treatments could be afforded. However, before buying a medical insurance plan, it is important to compare costs with the coverage and total insurance sum provided. It would be best to have a plan that offers comprehensive coverage at a reasonable cost. Don’t just select the lowest-priced plan; do take into account what type of expenses, diseases and treatments are covered by the policy and then make a comparison with policies offered by other companies.
4) Cashless option: To secure a hassle free policy, do look up what cashless services the insurance provides. For example, when you get hospitalized, you could get the treatment by just showing your medical insurance card. You would not have to pay any money. However, for this service, the insurance provider should have tied up with a wide coverage of hospitals. Otherwise, you would not be able to use the cashless service, but ask for a reimbursement later, which often takes time.
5) Employer-provided insurance: Do check out whether your employer has extended any insurance cover. There could be chances that even if you and your spouse are covered by the employer’s group health insurance, you may still need an individual health insurance policy. This could be because the amount of insurance provided by your employer may not be adequate.
Source: in.finance.yahoo.com
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