Compare and buy mediclaim insurance India

Some of the key reasons it is absolutely necessary to take health insurance include:

Medical Emergencies Can Be Financially Draining on Resources

With today’s medical inflation in double digits and every increasing cost of healthcare, it would not be advisable to be without sufficient health insurance. With the advancement in medicine, doctors and hospitals and starting to bill their patients much higher for routine and complicated treatments that the customer will have to cough up without sufficient health insurance.

Comprehensive Coverage Plans

Today’s insurance plans are not only about covering Inpatient hospitalisation. It also includes coverage like Pre & Post Hospitalisation, Coverage for AYUSH treatment, Maternity & New Born baby cover, Organ Donor Expense cover, Ambulance charges cover, Daycare and Domiciliary Hospitalisation expense coverage and many more.

Long Term Benefits of Remaining Insured

All health insurance plans come today with waiting periods, both the mandatory waiting period of 30 days and longer waiting periods for other names ailments/illnesses. Hence by staying insured beyond this waiting period, the insured gets covered for almost every ailment possible, barring the general exclusions. There is a propensity for elder family members to fall ill and require treatment, hence at this stage them having a comprehensive cover will help. Secondly, being insured long term also ensures that for every claim free year, the insured becomes eligible for a no claim bonus, which result in an increased sum insured at no additional cost…over a period of time, this coverage can reach 150% of the original sum insured.

Preventative Care and Early Intervention

Many insurance plans today encourage and support wellness solution and an overall healthy lifestyle of the insured. When one doesn't have insurance, one may avoid getting treated for minor issues which can escalate into bigger and costlier problems later. Preventive medicine and quick treatment are the best ways to avoid expensive hospital stays.. Some insurance plans have an inbuilt annual health check up free of cost to the insured.

Lifestyle Effects

There are many reasons to have a health insurance policy in place. The paradigm shift in our lifestyle has made us more prone to a wide range of health disorders. Commuting, hectic work schedules, wrong eating habits, quality of food, and rising levels of pollution have increased the risk of developing health problems. Health insurance once again will come to the rescue were one to be hospitalised.

Income tax benefit

Earlier, this used to be the primary reason for individuals to buy insurance. Payments made towards health insurance premiums are also eligible for tax deductions under section 80D of the Indian Income Tax Act. Individuals up to 60 years of age can claim a deduction of up to Rs. 25,000 for the health insurance premium paid for themselves, or for their spouse or children. One can also claim another Rs. 50,000 as deduction if you buy health insurance for your parents aged 60 years and above.

A few important points have to be noted while buying health insurance. It is advisable to purchase coverage at a younger age, as customer can become ineligible for certain plans as they grow older and have any medical ailments. For example, some insurance policies are not available to anyone who has diabetes. Even if a customer becomes eligible to purchase a specific insurance policy, all plans have a exclusion period during which pre-existing ailments are not covered. It should also be known that the plans do not cover sickness immediately, they usually have a thirty day waiting period before sickness is covered, hospitalization caused by accidents are however covered immediately.

Types of Indian Health Insurance

Health insurance plans in India can be broadly classified as follows:

• Indemnity Plans
  • Individual Health Insurance
  • Family Floater Health Insurance
  • Senior Citizen Plans
  • Top Up Plans
  • Women’s Plans including Maternity
  • Arogya Sanjeevani – new plan introduced by insurers on direction of IRDAI
• Fixed Benefit Plans
  • Critical Illness Plans
  • ospital Cash Plan
  • Diabetes Care
  • Cancer Care
  • Cardiac / Heart related plans

Get free quotes for Indian health insurance plans at eindiainsurance and select as per your requirements.

The plan descriptions are as follows:

Indemnity Plans

The most popular and most sought after forms of health insurance in India are indemnity based health insurance plans, also commonly known as “Indian mediclaim insurance”, which cover the costs incurred for inpatient treatment received by the insured during the period of the policy. These India health insurance coverage provide cashless hospitalization or reimbursement of any expenses incurred in the event of hospitalization, diagnostic requirements during this treatment and post hospitalization medical care. The mediclaim insurance coverage in India can be offered as:

• Individual India Health Insurance Plan - Individual health insurance coverage in India provides a separate and designated sum insured for each insured member. So, with these type of best individual health insurance policies, one member’s medical expenses do not impact the coverage for another family member
• Family Floater mediclaim Insurance Plan - The family floater insurance coverage in India plan provides coverage to the entire declared family under a single sum insured. Specifically designed for nuclear families, here a fixed sum insured is available for any or all the family members insured under the plan for all claims during the tenure of the policy. A family is normally defined to include the individual, spouse, dependent children, parents and parents-in-law. Thus, if one member ends up using a large portion of the sum insured, the other member may fall short of cover when needed.
• Senior Citizen Plans – Essentially to cover individuals who are above the age of 60 years. These plans normally come with lower sum insured and co pay / sub limits
• Top Up Plans - Top up health plans are regarded as add-on cover or additional protection cover to your existing health cover which may at times become insufficient against increasing the cost of medical services. Top up plans are offered by several insurers and you can even buy from your existing health insurance provider.
• Women’s Plans – A few insurance companies have now started offering insurance plans specifically for ladies given their lifestyle issues they face as they age. Maternity plans are also offered for younger women.

Fixed benefit health insurance plans

Fixed benefit insurance offer a fixed one time lumpsum benefit on the occurrence of certain defined medical situations, like the Diagnosis of a Critical Illness, Accident Related Hospitalization, Hospital Cash Benefit etc. Such plans are purchased to not only cover expenses related to hospitalization but also compensate the insured for loss of income during the injury period. The two specific advantages of such plans is that 1) they pay the complete sum insured on first diagnosis/occurrence of the incident, irrespective of the expenses incurred by the insured for treatment of the medical condition and 2) such a payout is over and above what an health insurance plan will pay to the insured by way of reimbursement or cashless expenses. Importantly one must understand that the limitation of such a plan is that it may or may not cover all medical contingencies. The variants include:

• Critical Illness Indian health insurance(CI)– CI plans offer a fixed lump sum payment on the diagnosis of the defined critical illnesses. Each insurance company provides a list of Critical Illnesses covered under their CI plans that are covered and the benefit is paid on diagnosis of any of these illnesses. Such a payment also provides an income for the insured.
• Personal Accident Insurance - These plans offer a defined lump sum benefit on the unfortunate incident of an accident to the insured resulting in Death, Dismemberment, Disability, Broken bones, Burns etc. These plans could also cover Education Expenses for the insured’s children as well as Ambulance expenses
• Hospital Cash/Surgical Benefit Insurance – Such plans pay the lump sum benefit of the Sum insured as Hospital Cash, which is a defined per day allowance while the insured is hospitalized following an accident or sickness towards incidental expenses incurred by the insured. Surgical plan on the other hand take care of any major or minor surgery that the insured may need to undergo.
• Specific plans for covering Diabetes / Cancer / Cardiac Related ailments

The table below will give a more detailed understanding of differences between both plan categories:

Fixed Benefit Plans	Indemnity Based Insurance Plans
Pays a lumpsum upto Sum Insured on the occurrence of the covered event – personal accident, critical illness etc	Reimbursement/cashless settlement only upto the actual expenses incurred irrespective of the Sum Insured
These plans cover only a limited / fixed set of benefits which are defined in the plan	Most indemnity based health insurance plans offer wide ranging coverage for sickness to the insured
Policy / Plan expires in the event of a claim and the Sum Insured being settled to the insured	Policy continues even after a claim is paid, coverage will remain upto the balance remaining Sum Insured (or back to 100% SI with Restore Benefit plans)
Fixed Benefit plans normally do not have a co-pay or deductible. Full Sum Insured settled to the insured	Indemnity plans have a co-pay / deductible based on the plan chosen by the insured
Some Fixed Benefit Plan like Critical Illness have Survival periods (normally 30 days) after which expenses/SI becomes payable	No Survival Period. Expenses from Day 1 of hospitalisation are payable under this plan
Premium for these plans are relatively higher	Premiums based on coverage/SI chosen, but cheaper when compared to Fixed Benefit plans