Many of us are aware of the need for health insurance. Be it a company sponsored one or a personal one, we can get insured quite easily. Seeing the rise of customers, there are countless firms which sell health insurance plans in India. There are so many variants that it often becomes confusing.
However, there’s one policy which is quite common, old and sold by nearly all firms: medicalaim policy. In a nutshell, a mediclaim policy reimburses you for hospitalisation treatments only.
You can either buy an online mediclaim policy or through an agent but before you buy, here are a few things you should know.
Types of Health Insurance Policies:
There are two types of mediclaim policies:
Individual Policy:
A policy which covers an individual for a specific sum only. For instance, if all members of a family of four are insured for INR 1 lakh, each member can file a claim of up to INR 1 lakh only.
Family Floater:
With a family floater, it covers an entire family for a common sum assured. For instance, if all members of a family of four are insured for INR 5 Lakh, one is hospitalised and makes a claim for INR 2 lakh, the family will have only INR 3 lakh as a cover for the remaining year.
Hospitalization
Since mediclaim covers charges for hospitalisation, there is one condition for your claim to get accepted. An insured’s claims will only get accepted if he or she is hospitalised for more than one day.
Tax Benefits
A mediclaim policy provides you tax benefits as well. You can claim deductions for mediclaim premiums up to INR 25, 000 under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act. There are additional benefits of INR 25, 000 as well for mediclaim premiums for parents (INR 30, 000 if they are senior citizens).
Sub-limits
Most mediclaim policies come with sub-limit on room rents. This means that out of the total cover, you can use a certain percentage only on room rent. The percentage differs from insurer to insurer. There are room rent limits so that customers don’t visit expensive hospitals even for simple procedures
Pre-existing diseases
Every health insurance company doesn’t cover pre-existing diseases until a few years have passed from the policy’s date of purchase. The same goes for mediclaim policies. Any complications arising from pre-existing diseases is considered as a pre-existing disease too. For example, if you have diabetes listed as a pre-existing disease in the policy form and you develop blindness due to diabetes, it is a pre-existing disease.
A mediclaim policy is an excellent choice to cover for any hospitalisation costs and acts as an excellent tax saving measure as well. Make sure you buy them from reputed insurers such as ICICI Lombard, HDFC ERGO, and Bajaj Allianz.
manjushaiyera 