Everyone needs to visit the doctor once in a while and these consultations aren’t cheap. One thing we all learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic is that health should be the priority. The costs of medical facilities have skyrocketed in the last few years, and this is where health insurance comes in. Choosing the right health insurance plan will help you cover the expenses incurred during a stay in the hospital.
Benefits of Health Insurance
Hospitalisation: Health insurance helps cover every part of medical expenses incurred during hospitalisation, including costs related to doctor fees and medicines. It will also cover the costs of any tests, room rents, or ICU charges.
Pre-and-post hospitalisation: The insurance also covers pre-and-post hospitalisation costs – incurred 30-60 days before and 60-90 days after admission.
Annual check-ups: Some health insurance schemes come with annual check-ups that help keep track of your health and seek medical intervention if required.
Besides these, health insurance also provides coverage for critical illnesses, cashless treatment, and ambulance charges.
How to get the maximum benefit from your health insurance policy?
To get the maximum claim or benefit from the health insurance plans, one can follow the given steps:
– Someone who has multiple health insurance plans can get the maximum claim. If the medical expenses are more than the sum insured by the first plan, you can claim the balance amount from the second one, thus getting most of the expenses covered. (FYI: If you have more than one insurance plan you will have to mandatorily make a disclosure.)
– A few health insurance plans also come with refill benefits for partial and full utilisation of the sum assured. Under such plans, the insurer refills the partial or full amount once the policyholder utilises it to make payments for any expensive treatment. However, such plans come with higher premiums.
– To get the maximum from health insurance plans, one should avoid sub-limits like room rent capping, deductibles, etc.
– Health insurance policies come with a waiting period of 2-4 years, if you start at a young age this period will pass off easily. It’s also advisable to start early to get the maximum benefit of the plan.
– Health insurance claims are settled only if the policy is active, so it is important to renew it on time. If someone forgets to renew the plan, then the insurance provider will not pay even a single rupee.
