Health Insurance – Your Complete Guide for 2025!
Posted by Fintra , updated 2024-10-22
Health Insurance covers all the expenses incurred on medical bills such as surgical expenses, prescription drugs bills, dental expenses, and doctor’s fees. The Health Insurance Company has two options - it either pays these expenses directly to the hospital/clinic, or the insured bears the expenses initially, and the company would reimburse the insured person later on. Getting good and beneficial health insurance can be a tricky task, hence, go through this blog thoroughly and get all the information you need to know before purchasing one for yourself or your family.
In this blog, Fintra will highlight the following points:
- What are the benefits of Health Insurance?
- What are Health Insurance premium calculators?
- What is the Age Limit and the Ideal Age for getting Health Insurance?
- How is Health Insurance different from Life Insurance?
- What are the different scenarios for claiming your Health Insurance?
- What are the various documents required for getting Health Insurance?
- Which are the various companies that offer good Health Insurance Policies?
What are the benefits of Health Insurance?
- Critical illness coverage: In today’s time, insurance companies offer insurance coverage for critical illness and terminal illness. All the expenses are paid by the insurance company no matter how expensive it might be. Life-threatening illnesses and diseases like bone-marrow transplant, by-pass surgeries, loss of limbs, stroke, kidney failure, and others are covered under the Health Insurance Policies. Generally, the policies are mentioned in the forms of the kind of illness and diseases covered by the policy.
- Coverage against all the medical bills: Health Insurance Policies promise to bear all the expenses incurred upon the treatment, and medical bills of the insured individual. These insurance mainly focus on providing the best medical help and treatment without getting worried about the expenses. The insured individual has nothing to worry about the finances if he/she has good Health Insurance done.
- Tax benefits: Health Insurance can also help you save some of your taxes. The premium paid against the health care plans is eligible for a tax deduction. Section 80D in the Income Tax Act, 1961 covers all the tax benefits against the premium paid for health insurance and various other insurances. This way, you can have good health insurance in addition to saving some of your taxes. It’s a win-win situation for the consumer.
- Free periodic health check-up: An additional benefit of having a health insurance policy is that the health insurance company provides free health check-ups to the insured individual after every 3-5 claim-free years. The insurance company offers cashless check-up if the health check-up is done at an insurance company registered clinic or hospital. Otherwise, if you have had your health check-up done at some other healthcare facility, the insurer will reimburse the expenses incurred there.
- Attendant allowance: Most of the insurance companies offer to pay a fixed amount of expenses incurred by the attendant of a patient, provided that the patient is a child or a senior citizen. The number of days for which the insurer will provide allowance is fixed. And a sum variable from company to company is provided on a day to day basis. The attendant should be named before the beginning of the treatment, and there cannot be more than one attendant.
- Expense bills related to organ donors: The total expenses of a kidney transplant could cost anywhere between 3 to 5 lakh Rupees. However, if you have health insurance, you won't have to worry about all those expenses. As part of the healthcare plan, various general and health insurance companies cover the expenses of organ transplants. While some insurance companies reimburse the client post-surgery, some of the insurers provide cashless coverage of the whole organ transplant. The expenses of harvesting the organ and the cost of the surgery are covered by the insurance company while the expenses of hospitalization of the donor and other expenses are not paid by the insurance company.
- Cashless Claim Benefits: The majority of Health Care Providers offer cashless claim benefits. In this kind of arrangement, the insured person does not have to take money out of his/her pocket for initially paying the bills. Instead, the Health Clinic or Hospital along with the Insurance Companies settle all the expenses and the transactions between them without bothering you much. There is a network of hospitals and clinics that depend on insurance companies. You can avail this benefit in those hospitals or clinics only.
What are the Health Insurance Premium Calculators?
The health insurance premium calculator assists one to determine the amount of premium they have to pay to the insurance agent or company to get insured. Because there are so many companies offering Term Insurance Plans, these calculators also give you the option of choosing between different insurers, compare the premiums, and additional benefits provided by them. Such calculators will require you to feed in your basic details such as your age, gender, annual income, some questions might be about your health conditions, and whether you have had any major condition in your past. Whether you smoke or consume tobacco is also a major criterion for the health insurance premium calculators to predict the approximate premium, which you will have to pay for the policy.
What is the Age Limit and the Ideal Age for getting Health Insurance?
The minimum age to obtain health insurance is 18 years, and the average maximum age to get it is 75-80 years. The maximum age may vary for various policies and insurance companies. However, it is recommended to get a good Health Insurance plan as soon as you turn 18. The earlier you avail health insurance it will be better because of the increasing costs of treatments and inflation. As soon as you get yourself covered, the less premium and the more benefits you can avail, and the older you grow, the greater risk of getting ill arises.
How is Health Insurance different from Life Insurance?
- Health insurance covers medical bills, doctor’s fees, and other medical bills. Life insurance covers the premature death of an insured individual.
- Life insurance assures death benefits to the beneficiary's family, whereas Health insurance directly pays for all the medical bills and expenses incurred for treating the insured person.
There is no direct comparison between Life Insurance and Health Insurance in any which ways. On one hand, Health insurance covers all the medical bills, treatments, ambulance charges, doctor’s fees, etc. On the other hand, in case of premature death, Life Insurance provides sufficient funds to the family and spouse of the insured person. These funds help the family of the deceased pay all the funeral expenses and various other expenses incurred for the rituals and other things.
What are the different scenarios for claiming your Health Insurance?
Mostly, all the good Health Insurance policies cover common illness and diseases under the policy, but several diseases and ailments are not common. In case you desire to claim the health benefits from the insurance companies, first check whether the specific illness is covered under the policy or not. There are two modes of availing of your policy: Cashless claim and Reimbursement claim. For cashless claims, you have to get yourself treated in one of the hospitals that are affiliated with your insurance provider. If you get treated in any other clinic or hospital other than the chain of affiliated hospitals, you have to opt for the Reimbursement claims. In Reimbursement claims, the insured person has to pay all the bills initially with his/her pocket, and afterwards, they can get the bills reimbursed with the Healthcare Provider.
What are the various documents required for getting Health Insurance?
- Age Proof (Voter ID Card, PAN Card, Aadhaar Card, Driving License, Passport, Birth Certificate)
- Identity Proof (Voter ID Card, Driving License, Passport, Aadhar Card)
- Address Proof (Ration Card, Driving License, Passport, Rent Agreement, PAN Card, Aadhar Card, Utility Bills)
- Passport Size Photographs
- Medical Reports
- Proposal Form duly filled in and signed
Which are the various companies that offer good Health Insurance Policies?
- IFFCO Tokio Health Insurance Company
- Magma HDI Health Insurance
- New India Assurance Health Insurance Company
- Oriental Health Insurance Company
- Bajaj Allianz Health Insurance Company
- Care Health Insurance Company
- Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Company
- Max Bupa Health Insurance Company
- HDFC ERGO Health Insurance Company
Some other companies are listed here.
Conclusion
As we have seen how the 2020 year has turned out be, "Global Pandemic”, it has made us realize the importance of good health and a healthy lifestyle. The uncertainty of medical needs and conditions is always there. In this generation where the pollution is increasing day-by-day, where new health conditions are discovered every day, it is essential to keep our health perfect.
Health Insurance offers you health assistance, hospitals, clinics, and doctors for your help. It assures that you won't be burdened by the heavy medical bills may whatever the scenario. Getting your health insured at the earliest age is a very good decision because we never know what the next moment holds for us. Inspect all the good Insurance companies along with their health care packages and get yourself insurance that suits your needs and pockets. Health insurance can prove to be an asset at critical times. At the time of paying the premium, it might seem to be a major liability. However, in tough times, it could be a lifesaver quite literally.