The ever-increasing cost of healthcare services can drain your savings. To save yourself from that burden, health insurance can be a prudent investment. It helps you brace for any health emergencies in life by providing financial security at critical times.
By procuring the best health insurance policy, you can ensure that you or your family gets the best medical treatment without worrying about finances. There are several types of health insurance plans to cater to different health needs of individuals or groups of people. Let us know about the different kinds of health insurance policies in detail.
Types of health insurance policies in India
Here are the different types of health insurance policies available in India.
Individual health insurance
The individual health insurance covers only the individual/insured person under the plan. The person can utilise the entire sum insured for medical expenses specified under the policy.
Family health insurance
In a family health insurance policy, the chosen sum assured applies to all family members covered under a single plan. This means one plan for all members. The sum insured gets divided among all the members insured under the plan.
Group/employee health insurance
Group health insurance policies cover the expenses of the employees or a group of people/members against unforeseen medical emergencies. Group medical insurance comes at a lower premium, as it covers a larger group. Most employers or organisations buy this health insurance plan for the members/employees enrolled under them.
Senior citizens health insurance
Health insurance plans for senior citizens cover individuals above 60 years of age. Senior citizen health insurance caters to all medical-related expenses at that age. You may need to undergo a medical check-up before you buy the plan, as senior citizens usually develop several age-related health conditions. These health insurance policies usually come with higher premiums.
Critical illness health insurance
Critical illness health insurance provides coverage against life-threatening or serious diseases. You can buy this plan as a standalone or as an add-on cover on your basic health insurance policy. The critical illnesses plan covers diseases like cancer, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, etc. These policies offer a huge amount as compensation to the policyholder for expenses that fall in the ambit of this plan.
Top-up health insurance
Top-up health insurance plan lets you scale up your insurance coverage at an affordable cost. This plan covers expenditures that are over and above the coverage of your regular health insurance policy.
Personal accident insurance
Personal accident insurance secures you and your family financially to tackle medical expenses arising out of an accident. It gives financial aid to take treatment in case of accidental injury or disability. You also get coverage in case of accidental death.
Indemnity health insurance
Indemnity health insurance reimburses the exact amount to the policyholder for the medical expenses incurred. These policies do not offer any additional benefits, such as the waiver of premiums in case of a critical illness.
Defined-benefit plan
Defined-benefit plan policies offer a predefined amount of coverage for specific medical expenses. For instance, the policy will offer a fixed amount of coverage for each day of hospitalisation, irrespective of the actual expenses incurred by the policyholder.
