Types of Health Insurance
In India, there are various types of health insurance, one should know which to opt for. The types of health insurance are:
Indemnity Health Insurance Plans:
This type of plan compensates the insured for the cost of medical expenses. In most cases, the insured has to submit the medical bills to the insurance company in order to get reimbursed. Many of these plans also have “Deductibles”,i.e., a fixed amount that the insured has to pay towards these medical expenses himself, with the rest of the bill being paid by the insurer up to the policy limit.
Types of Indemnity plans are:
- Mediclaim Insurance: This type of policy compensates the insured for various hospitalisation expenses like surgery, consultation charges, nursing fee etc.
- Individual Insurance: In this policy, the insured can claim the incurred amount of expenses up to the policy limit, individually. So, if a person has individual insurance of Rs. 2 Lakh and his spouse is also covered, both can claim up to Rs. 2 Lakh individually.
- Family Floater Insurance Plan: In this case, the entire amount of coverage of the policy is equally divided among all the members of a family. Therefore, if a family of 5 has family floater insurance of Rs. 5 lakh, each member can claim only up to Rs. 1 lakh individually.
- Unit Linked Health Insurance Plans: They provide the dual benefit of investment and insurance. A fixed proportion of premium is invested in the stock market to reap benefits of investment and the remainder is used to provide insurance coverage.
Fixed Benefit Health Insurance Plans:
This is a type of health insurance in which the insurer covers only some pre-determined diseases or conditions, and reimburses the cost of only such medical expenses to the policyholder.
Types of Fixed Benefit Plans are:
- Critical Illness Plans: In this plan, the insurer has to make payment to the insured, in case he is diagnosed with any of the pre-determined illnesses covered in the policy. This usually covers conditions like cancer, kidney failure, first heart attack, major organ transplant etc.
- Hospitalisation Cash Benefit Plan: In this plan, the policyholder is provided with a daily cash allowance up to a certain limit, apart from other hospitalisation expenses.
