Uncovering the Lesser Known Features of Health Insurance

With the rise in healthcare expenses, it has become even more significant today to get health insurance. Due to the costly medical treatments, it gets difficult for most of Indian families to gain access to quality healthcare treatments. This is when a health insurance plan comes into the picture, it offers protection to the insured against the financial crisis arising due to high medical costs.
A lot of people believe that health insurance policy coverage is only limited to expenses related to hospitalization. However, this is far from the truth. Health insurance plans offer a variety of benefits other than the hospitalisation expenses. Read on to know more.

Lesser Known Health Insurance Features

Some of the lesser known features and benefits of health insurance are as follows:

1. Tax Benefit

Tax benefits on the premium paid for health insurance can be obtained when the payment is made either through net banking, cheque, or any other digital mode. However, the benefits cannot be availed of if the payment is done through cash. Moreover, a policyholder can avail of the tax benefit on payment made for preventive health check ups up to Rs 5000 even if it is done in cash.

2. Health Check-Ups

Regular health check-ups are extremely important, especially to detect any health issues and in order to prevent any complications further. An ideal health insurance policy offers yearly medical check up on a cashless basis. Despite being aware of this feature, a majority of policyholders fail to use it. This happens due to the fear of paying a high premium amount at the time of policy renewal in case the results come out with any health complications in the report. However, it is a wrong fact and must not be worried about. The expenses of health check-ups are directly settled by the insurer if the test is done at one of the network hospitals of the insurer.

3. Health Policies Sub-Limits

The claim from the insurer at the time of hospitalisation may be attached to rental charges of the room which is decided by the sum insured in the health insurance plan. For instance, if your sum insured is Rs. 700000 and the charges for rent of the room is fixed at 1 percent for a day, which comes out to be around Rs 7000. However, if you choose to go for higher room rent, then in that case you may have to pay for expenses on your own even after holding a cashless health insurance policy. Therefore, it is recommended to ask the Health insurance company regarding the sub-limits beforehand before purchasing the policy.

4. No Health Tests Required For Individuals Less Than 45 Years

There is no need to go for a pre-policy health check up for individuals up to 45 years of age. However, for a larger sum insured the insurance company can ask for a health check up even for people below 45 years of age. Therefore, before purchasing any health plan it is always suggested to disclose the medical history of self and family to the insurer.

5. No Loading Fee

Loading fee is the extra charges that the policyholder is asked to pay during the time of policy renewal. These charges are applicable generally for high risk people. In order to remove this extra burden from the shoulders of a policyholder, certain insurance companies such as Care Health Insurance offers the policyholders with the additional feature that provides the freedom to the policyholder from the loading charges at the time of policy renewal, even if they raise a claim.

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Disclaimer: This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. Readers are advised not to rely on the contents of the article as conclusive in nature and should research further or consult an expert in this regard.