Health Insurance Buying Guide

What Is Health Insurance?

Health insurance is a type of insurance that covers the policyholder's medical costs. The policy holder may be covered for costs associated with serious illnesses, surgeries, hospital stays, and other expenses depending on the health insurance plan selected.

Why You Need Health Insurance?

Changing lifestyles are causing diseases with expensive and prolonged treatments. A Health insurance plan helps cushion your family finances from unexpected large medical expenses.

How HDFC Life Health Insurance Plans help you?

The Health Insurance Plans provide financial support for health related emergencies. It helps meet various health insurance needs be it based on the life stage of a person or a specific disease.

Why Do You Need Health Insurance Plan?

Most people think that it will never happen to them yet so many are often proven wrong. A serious bout of ill-health often lands people in hospitals inflicting serious damage to their family’s finances.

Preventing long term financial damage

A financially unprotected and ill-prepared family can suffer for years thanks to one medical emergency. This is one major reason why everyone needs to be covered by health insurance through a health insurance plan.Medical inflation

Medical inflation

Nobody is immune to the impact of inflation on their finances. Yet many are unaware that medical costs have risen faster than general price rise. The future is expected to be no different and that is one more reason people need to have medical insurance through health insurance plans and medical policies.

Costly treatment of lifestyle diseases

Thanks to advances in healthcare and greater access of healthcare facilities like hospitals and clinics, people are living longer and leading better quality of life. At the same time, changing lifestyle has led to increase in lifestyle diseases like diabetes and those related to the heart. Of course, there is cancer whose onset has also increased. Most of us are aware that the treatment for such diseases, especially hospitalisation can be very expensive. This provides us with yet one more reason to have health insurance or medical insurance by buying an online health insurance plan. Clearly, meeting such expenses from regular income is not even an option. Also, you can never be sure how much such an emergency would cost you.

Premature exit from long term investments

If you are unprotected from the impact of emergencies, your family’s present and future are bound to be impacted. Remember, not only will you have to pay for your immediate treatment but also have to spend money for follow-up treatment. That’s not to ignore the possibility of a disruption in your earning your regular. Often, all this involves you or your family making premature exits from investments. This may not only derail arrangements in meeting regular family expenses but also your progress for the future such as child’s higher education. To sum up, medical emergencies can be much more expensive than they might appear. The good news is that we have health insurance plans that can help us get our lives back on track after any medical emergency.

Factors to Consider While Buying Health Insurance

We are aware of how important health insurance is in protecting a family’s finances in the event of a medical emergency. But how does one buy a health insurance plan? Here are some tips to buy medical insurance with the help of a health insurance plan.

Get adequate coverage

There is little logic on scrimping on premiums while buying med claim policies. The focus has to be on getting the maximum coverage required by your family at affordable premiums. Remember, you pay from your pocket whatever a med claim policy or health insurance plan doesn’t.

Check company’s geographical presence

Insurance companies providing mediclaim policies or health insurance plans typically have tie ups with hospitals having large networks. You need to check whether hospitals or healthcare facilities empanelled with a prospective insurance company, are situated close to your residence. Also, check if the insurance company has a presence across the country so that in the case of the need for physical interaction, you are not inconvenienced.

Study the width of coverage

Health insurance plans provide financial protection to you in case of medical emergencies but the coverage of the emergencies are specified in the policies. It is important to be aware of these conditions, the ailments and diseases that are covered. Consider opting for a health insurance plan that has a wide coverage and few exclusions.

Find out the coverage of pre-existing diseases

If you suffer from a particular ailment, you will need to disclose this at the time of buying a health insurance plan. At the same time, it is important to know from when the disease will get covered. Typically, insurance companies start covering pre-existing ailments after 3-4 years of continuous coverage.

Save on premiums by buying online

Almost all companies offering health insurance companies offer online policies. The premiums for such mediclaim policies and health insurance plans are lower since the companies pass on savings from distribution and other cost savings. However, remember that advice and support you get from an advisor will be absent and you will need to deal with the company directly. This makes it important for you to choose an insurance company well known for its customer service both online and in its branch offices across the country.
To sum up, online health insurance provides you with financial protection your family needs in case of medical emergencies. Yet, one needs to keep these five things in mind to make the most of this protection tool.