Our Health Insurance Policy Explained - Part I

If you have bought a Health Insurance policy, chances are that you are aware that the insurance company will pay your bill for hospitalization of atleast 24 hours.

Just like mobile phones have lots of features and options, health insurance policies too have features that you may not know. Plus there are  features  that may be optional and can be added . If you are buying a policy or have already bought a policy it is possible that:

You may not have features you need, or Have some features that you may rarely need, but have already paid for.

Let us look at some covers that you must necessarily have:

Ambulance Cover: This provides for costs of the ambulance for transportation of the insured patient to the hospital. Insurance companies will limit this to cost to 500-2000 rupees depending on your policy. 

Day Care Procedures: Typically Health Insurance will pay your bills only if you have been admitted in hospital for 24 hours or more. This cover provides for expenses incurred on named surgeries requiring less than 24 hours of hospitalization. These can be expensive procedures, and more and more procedures that previously required hospitalization is moving into this list. This is therefore an important feature to have in your policy. The number of covered procedures varies from company to company; hence it makes sense to check.

Pre-Hospitalization: This cover provides for expenses for a set number of days prior to the period of hospitalization. Surgeries and procedures often require preparatory admission, and this cover provides for those expenses.

Post Hospitality: This cover provides for expenses for a set number of days from the end of the period of hospitalization. Middling to major surgeries require convalescence periods and this is a good cover to have.

The next 2 covers are for a specific life stage: for those people in the procreating years.

Maternity Cover: Most health insurance policies do not ordinarily cover hospitalization for maternity related conditions. If you are in the procreating years it makes sense to opt for this cover. Please remember that there is a waiting period of (usually) 3 years before a claim can be made under this cover. Plan in advance.

New Born Cover: Normally, babies are covered from 3 months onwards. This cover allows a new born to be covered from birth. After 3 months, the baby can be added to the existing policy.

These according to us are the essential covers that your Health Insurance policy must have. In our next blog we will talk about the covers you may want to buy or give a miss depending on your personal situation.

Amit Kumar