Coverage Based Different Types of Health Insurance (1)

Coverage Based Different Types of Health Insurance

Not sure what’s the difference between different types of health insurance like maternity insurance, senior citizen insurance & critical illness insurance? Read on to know more.
Coverage Based Different Types of Health Insurance (1)
Health insurance is often referred to as Mediclaim or even medical insurance in India. It is a policy primarily devised to cover your medical and surgical costs, as and when they appear. Different policies are devised considering people with different financial and health status.

Being aware of various types of health insurance policies is essential as it can help you select the right plan based on the coverage. Here are the popular choices available.

Individual Plans

The individual health insurance policy is designed to cover each person of the family against treatment expenses in case of any illnesses or an accident with a separate cover. It covers hospitalisation and surgical expenses up to the sum insured or the coverage amount.

The general hospitalisation plans give you additional benefits as well. These include the following:

  • Maternity cover
  • Newborn coverage
  • Daycare procedures for some ailments
  • Pre- and post-hospitalisation care
  • Domiciliary benefits, in cases where home care is required
  • Daily cash benefits
  • Convalescence or costs covered for recuperating period

Family Floater Plans

The family floater health insurance would provide you with coverage for your entire family basis “one family, one policy” concept. Under this health insurance plan, you get a single insurance cover for your whole family. So, anybody in your family can claim the insurance-provided benefits in case of hospitalisation or surgical expenses.

For instance, consider 3 members of a family covered by a floater plan of Rs. 10 lakhs and the age of the eldest member is 30 years. Then, you pay a single premium of approximately Rs. 28,000 for all the members instead of three different premiums.

This plan works the best for younger families where the age of the eldest member is 30-45 years. This is because the likelihood of two members falling ill at the same time is small.

Senior Citizen Health Plans

It includes plans specially designed for senior citizens or older family members. The reason being they have relatively low waiting periods and cover diseases specific to old age. As per IRDA, the insurer must provide cover up to the age of 65 years.

Maternity Health Plans

These plans are regular health plans offering cover for the maternity related medical expense. It takes care of hospital cost, ambulance charges, pre- and post-natal care, baby delivery, etc.

Usually, these plans have longer waiting periods of 3 – 4 years before you can claim for maternity expenses and have a higher premium. Thus, most of the insurers do not recommend buying these plans.

Critical Illness Plans

It is type of health insurance policy, where the policyholder gets a lump sum (fixed) amount on diagnosis of a critical illness. The conditions included in this category include strokes, cardiac arrests, cancer, etc. which have a large impact on the life of an individual after diagnosis.

Considering high costs of these illnesses, it is advisable for people, especially, sole breadwinners to consider buying this cover.

With this, we come to an end of types of health insurance plans available in India, based on the coverage offered. Evaluate and choose one the one that best suits your medical and financial needs.

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