Comments
You know you need health insurance to reduce the financial burden, should anything untoward happen. Here’s listing five covers that are integral to your health insurance plan.
Individual health insurance: This is the basic type of health insurance cover available in the market for an individual. It includes hospitalisation and surgery expenses for an individual for up to the cover amount (sum assured). The premium you pay on such a policy depends on the cover amount.
Family floater cover: This considers an entire family as one unit. The plan compensates the basic sum insured for subsequent hospitalisation due to new ailments or accident after the cover is exhausted in a policy year.
The biggest advantage of a family floater policy is that it’s more economical compared to buying individual policy for each member.
Top-up insurance: It is often the case that an employer provides for health insurance either for an individual or family, including parents. Such coverage is generally for a minimum amount. Further, if you choose to change jobs, there could be a break in insurance. So it is always advisable to have additional personal protection.
Top-up covers come at affordable premiums. Top-up policies pay for claims over a specified amount (called the deductible). Claims can be made up to the sum insured.
Critical illness policy: A critical illness plan pays a lumpsum on diagnosis of serious ailments as outlined in your policy document. The lumpsum can be used for expensive treatment or recuperation aids, make up for loss of income due to fall in the ability to earn or pay off debts.
Personal accident policy: This policy offers compensation in the case of death or bodily injury to the insured person, directly and solely as a result of an accident, by external, visible and violent means.
Different coverages are available, ranging from a restricted cover of death only to a comprehensive cover covering death, permanent disablements and temporary total disablements.
Group personal accident policies are also available for specified groups with a discount in premium depending on the size of the group.
All of these insurance covers can be bought online for lower premiums than through an agent.
Given the varied benefits of each plan depending on the insurer, it is advisable that you conduct appropriate research before zeroing in on a policy so as to be able to make optimum use of it.
The writer is Executive Director, Star Health and Allied Insurance
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.