Health insurance or health care insurance is a must for every individual and family. People consider it an essential insurance, which helps them in meeting all the needs in life. It is a type of insurance which covers a person when he meets with a medical emergency. Health insurance is an insurance which covers a part or the total cost of a particular individual spreading the risk equally to many other persons. The insurer who offers health insurance to a client first evaluates the health status of that client and the current health situation before giving him a quote.
Medical insurance or health insurance helps an individual to pay for the regular health care expenses that he may incur. The policy helps to take care of all long-term care costs like dental, hospital, physiotherapy and other health care services. It also covers the cost of prescription drugs, maternity expenses and occupational health. The most significant feature of health insurance is that a certain premium amount is paid by the insured on a monthly basis, which is determined according to the age and the smoking habits of the client.
There are many kinds of health insurance plans available in the market. Some are state sponsored, while some others are private. State-sponsored health insurance helps a beneficiary to pay for the medical expenses incurred while residing in the state. The insurer reimburses the beneficiary for all the medical expenses up to a certain limit. Private health insurance helps a client to take care of his long term and short-term medical expenses. Insurance companies offer different health insurance packages including the premium, deductibles, co-payments and any other charges that a client may be required to pay.
There is also a name for a health insurance plan which is known as family floater policy. Under this plan, a certain amount of money is paid by the insurer per month as premiums to cover the medical expenses of each member of the family. The family floater policy usually covers individuals who are related to a single primary wage earner. Thus if a member of the family loses his job then a health insurance policy known as family floater policy will pay all the expenses for treatment of that person.
In case an individual does not have enough money to pay for all the medical expenses, then he can look forward to Individual health insurance plans. These plans will provide sufficient money to pay all the medical expenses of an individual. The benefit of such an individual health insurance plan includes a basic coverage which includes doctor visits, hospitalization, and medication costs. Such an individual health insurance plan may also include emergency health insurance benefits in the event of unexpected illnesses or injury. Some insurance companies offer super top-up benefits to their clients if they are unable to manage to pay the regular premiums.
Some people prefer to go for Health Savings Plans (HSP) over health insurance plans as the former allows the policy holder to invest some money in high-risk medical funds. The money thus accumulated can be used for paying off medical expenses. Though the policy holder is not required to pay the premium in HSP, he still has to pay an amount to the institution providing the fund. Such insurance plans are very popular, as most of the employers provide this facility to their employees.
Most of the employers also offer flexible individual health insurance plans to their employees. Usually such flexible health insurance plans are available only for employees of small companies and are less expensive than the individual health insurance plans. One must remember that a family floater health insurance plan is not a health insurance plan but rather a health supplement plan that provide the necessary coverage for all the family members. Thus one must ensure that he has all the mandatory health insurance requirements as well as the family insurance requirements.
The term Health Insurance is derived from the words Health Insurance Act of 1963. It basically deals with all the medical expenses that are to be paid by the insured person or his family. As per the terms of the said act, every individual who is a citizen of the country and is aged 18 years and above is liable to acquire health insurance plans. As long as he pays the premiums on time, he will not have to pay any medical expense towards other individuals’ medical expenses. However, it must be clearly remembered that all the people who are insured must pay the premium regularly in order to maintain their health insurance plans. One must not forget that the government does not encourage any kind of experimentation with healthcare.
