Reasons Why Health Insurance Is Important 

While you live freely, it is important that you also carry a safety net. There may be times when health issues come up along with added medical costs. This is where health insurance protects you financially. It provides you with coverage for medical treatment costs. If you fall ill, you can claim it from your insurance company. The claim can be made in two ways i.e., cashless or reimbursement. Let’s see what are these two methods of making claim. You will also be able to know why a health insurance plan is important for you.

Cashless and Reimbursement Claim

The cashless claim is where you don’t need to pay your medical treatment cost. The cost is directly paid by the insurance company or the TPA. This facility is available only for treatment in the network hospital. Each insurance company ties up with some hospitals. These are known as network hospitals. The insurance companies directly pay the treatment costs to these network hospitals.

The second method is reimbursement. Here, you will have to pay your medical treatment cost first. After discharge from the hospital, you can file a claim with the insurance company. The insurance company will reimburse your medical cost. It will be based on the terms of the insurance policy.

Why Health Insurance is Important?

Health insurance is one of the most important components of your financial planning. It protects you from huge medical treatment costs. Following are the reasons why you must have a health insurance plan for yourself and your family:

Safeguard Your Family

Health insurance is important to financially protect your family. Anyone can be covered under health insurance such as your parents, children spouse, etc. Older members of the family are more likely to get infected with diseases. Also, their treatment cost could be higher due to age factors. It is good to have health insurance done beforehand, to avoid any extra expense.

Fight Lifestyle Diseases

Lifestyle diseases are becoming common. You can consider diabetes for example. More than 74 million adults in India are having diabetes. Other common lifestyle diseases and problems include obesity, hypertension, respiratory diseases, etc.

Health insurance provides financial protection against all such major diseases. Also as your lifestyle changes, you get more involved in work you become more prone to health diseases.

Protect Your Savings

Medical emergencies can take a huge toll on your savings. It is important to ensure that all such medical emergencies are covered by insurance. This ensures that you do not have to bear the financial burden of treatment.

Meet Medical Inflation

Medical inflation is real. With each passing year, the cost of medical treatments is increasing. For most people, bearing such a high cost of treatment without insurance can put them in deep debt. In the coming years, the cost of medical treatment will rise further. You do not want to face this problem, right? Then you must get health insurance.

Cover Exceptional Problems

Health insurance is not only limited to normal diseases. It also covers exceptional scenarios. You can also choose to add various riders to your health insurance plan. These riders can include benefits on accidental death, critical diseases, etc. They allow you to customise your health insurance plan as per your needs.

How to Select an Ideal Health Insurance?

To select ideal health insurance online, you should consider the following factors:

Evaluate Your Needs

It is important to understand your needs before buying health insurance. What is your current health situation? Are you suffering from any existing medical conditions? How much insurance coverage do you need? What are your annual medical costs? Ask yourself these questions. They will help you decide on the ideal health insurance.

Select the Insurer

Select an insurer that can fulfil your needs. Ensure you check their reputation and ratings on the internet. Another important factor is the claim settlement ratio (CSR). With higher CSR, there are more chances that the insurance company will approve your claim.

Compare Various Policies

You should consider various policies. Compare the different policies provided by the insurer. Don’t worry if the insurer cannot provide adequate coverage within your insurance budget. Feel free to go to another insurer. In any case, what’s important is to get adequate coverage. Otherwise, it will defeat the very purpose for which the insurance was purchased.

Points to Keep in Mind Before Buying Health Insurance

Following are the points you should keep in mind before buying insurance online:

• Buy at an early stage of life when you are young. You will get good coverage at a lower premium.
• Disclose your existing health conditions to your insurer. This will ensure that you do not face difficulties while filing for the insurance claim.
• Read the policy document carefully. Understand everything that is covered and things that are not covered.
• Go through the network hospital list. You can file a cashless claim only with the network hospital.
• Don’t hesitate to go for add-ons if they are required. Investing a little extra in add-ons can save you a lot in the future.
• Check the waiting period for your health insurance. During the waiting period, the existing health conditions won’t be covered under the policy. It can be anywhere between 1 year to 3 years.

In a Nutshell

As stated earlier, health insurance is one of the most important financial components. One can truly realise the importance of health insurance because it acts as a saviour during expensive medical treatments. If you are still uninsured, then it’s time to go and buy a health insurance plan now.

Always remember to renew your health insurance timely. This will prevent your health insurance policy from getting lapsed. Once the policy lapses, then you will again have to buy a new one. You will have to again go through the waiting period for existing diseases. You can simply set reminders on your smartphone for the due date of renewal. This will ensure that you don’t miss out on any due dates.

Piramal Finance is a one-stop platform for accurate information on financial and banking services. Make sure your financial knowledge is up to date on essential services and products, such as personal loans and insurance coverage, by reading the informative blogs on their website.