Medical Insurance By Beena Doshi

Namaste !!
I am back with my Insurance updates.
Today, I am going to write about one of the most important Insurance type, which is the Medical Insurance.
With the rising cost of Medical expenses, it is mandatory to have adequate Medical Insurance. Medical cost in India has increased exponentially, in the last couple of years. Also, due to lifestyle changes there are many diseases that are hitting the younger age group. Also dramatic reductions in physical activity because of urbanization, increased availability of motorized transportation to replace walking and bicycle riding, and mechanization of labor are having adverse effect on our health.
There are two basic types of Medical Insurance :-
· Family Floater: This type of health insurance plan covers the entire family.
· Individual Medical Plan: This plan covers medical expenses of an individual only.

Benefits of having a Family Floater:-
• You can get insurance for the whole family under one plan. There is no need for separate handling and management of plans.
• Some family floater plans allow senior citizens or your parents to be covered which is beneficial as it is difficult to get insurance for them. (but there are many cons if you are looking for family floater health insurance covering parents – as with the age their health issues will increase & can impact your premiums)
• If the age of the oldest member of the family is not high, then a bigger sum assured can be purchased at a lower premium.
• Many of family floater health insurance plans India can cover newborn babies almost immediately.
• The sum assured can be used multiple times if required.
• Family floater health insurance policy can also be used for tax deduction at the time of filing income tax returns. Indian’s love tax saving.
How much Health Insurance do I need?
Identifying health costs is the most difficult part of medical insurance as there is uncertainty regarding what type of illness may arise. But a reasonable assessment can be made based on the cost of medical treatment you might have to incur in the case of hospitalization.
Since the cost of medical treatment varies from city to city, the first level of assessment should be a hospital whose services you would avail in case hospitalization is required.

So, think about the following before you decide how much health insurance you require:
· Which hospital would be your first choice for treatment, if any medical emergency arises?
· How much is the approximate cost of hospitalization there?
This will help you to decide the medical insurance cover. Once , you decide on the amount , check for options available and then finalize the plan that best suits your requirement.

Let’s look at the benefits of a Health Insurance Policy:
1. Cashless Treatment: If you are insured, you can get cashless treatments as your insurance company would work in collaboration with various hospital networks.
2. Pre and post hospitalization cost coverage: Insurance policy also covers pre and post hospitalization charges up to the period of 60-90 days, depending on the insurance plans purchased.
3. Transportation Charges: Insurance policy also covers the amount paid to ambulance towards the transportation of insured.
4. No Claim Bonus (NCB): This is the bonus element which is paid to the insured if the insured does not file a claim for any treatment in the previous year.
5. Medical Checkup: Insurance policy also provides options for health checkups. Free health checkup is also provided by some insurers based on your previous NCBs.
6. Room Rent: Insurance policy also covers room expenses depending on the premium being paid by the insured.
7. Tax Benefit: Premium paid on Health insurance is tax deductible under section 80D of the Income Tax Act.

Hope this post gives you a good idea about how much medical insurance that you need.
It is best to treat it as financial protection rather than an expense to get the best benefits from it.