While we keep working hard in order to accumulate wealth throughout our lives, we often then to ignore that is something more valuable to us – that is health.

Maintaining good health is highly essential especially in today’s fast paced world where our modern lifestyle often results in affecting our health for the worse. Bad food habits, sedentary lifestyle, too much stress, increasing levels of pollution often leads to individuals suffering from serious health disorders.

The cost of medical treatment is increasing at a rapid pace (10 to 15 per cent annually) which can easily burn a hole in our pockets. In the event of a medical emergency, often it so happens that we have to dig into our savings. Such activities often impact our financial goals in the long run.

In the event of a medical emergency, you have to take funds from your accumulated savings to pay the medical bills, which will then have an adverse impact on your financial goals.

However, having a proper health insurance in place can help you from dire situations. By assessing your and your family’s healthcare needs properly, you can plan to buy health insurance and stay prepared against unforeseen medical emergencies . Having a proper health insurance provides coverage against medical expenses that incur in case of hospitalisation due to illness, injury or any medical condition. You only need to pay the premium amount for availing the health cover that can be utilized to pay for the medical bills.

3 Reasons You Should Opt For Health Insurance

1. Shift in Lifestyle

Lifestyle changes have a significant impact on health. You sit for long hours especially at work, consume unhealthy food often and don’t take proper care of health. All these aspects may lead to serious health problems that need immediate medical attention. Having a health insurance policy helps you to get easy access of quality medical care, without having to worry about its cost as it gets covered under the policy.

2. Expensive Medical Treatment

Healthcare expenses are becoming expensive and majority of households are paying medical bills from their pocket. The treatment cost of illnesses is enormous and it is quite tough for an ordinary person to afford these expenses. Getting quality treatment will have a huge cost that will destabilise your financial health. With the help of health insurance, you can easily get quality healthcare and the medical cost incurred will be borne by the insurance company.

3. Financial Security

Everyone wants to be financially secure and in order to achieve this objective, it is essential to get yourself and your family insured that will help deal with financial contingencies during any unexpected eventuality. If any member in your family falls ill and requires medical attention, you may have to pay the bills from your pocket that will compromise your financial goals. On the way towards attaining financial security, it is vital to get health coverage for your entire family.

Benefits of Health Insurance

# In-patient Hospitalisation: A health insurance policy covers hospitalisation cost incurred due to an illness, accident, or undergoing medical procedure. This coverage is applicable upon hospitalisation for at least 24 consecutive hours.

# Pre Hospitalisation: It covers medical expenses incurred for 30 days prior to hospitalization of the insured person. The days specified may differ from one insurer to other.

# Post Hospitalisation: It covers medical expenses incurred for 60 days after discharge from hospital. The days specified may differ from one insurer to other.

# Day Care Procedures: Some medical procedures or surgeries require hospitalisation for less than 24 hours. These medical procedures are covered under day care coverage in health insurance.

# Cashless Treatment: Health policy offers the option to avail cashless treatment, in case you get hospitalised in any one of the empanelled hospitals of the insurance company. When availing cashless hospitalization, you do not need to pay the hospital bills from your pocket as the insurance company will pay the bills. If you choose non-network hospital, you will have to pay the medical bills and then claim for reimbursement of these expenses.

# No Claim Bonus (NCB): It is a bonus component in a health policy, which is payable if you have not filed a claim during the previous policy year. The NCB benefit is available either as an increase in sum insured or discount on the premium for the subsequent policy year.

# Medical Check-up: Free health checkup is available under health insurance. Some insurance companies offer check-ups for claim free year, on renewal and some others offer this benefit annually for all covered members.

# Tax Benefits: The premium you pay for getting health cover can be availed to receive tax benefit under section 80D of the Income Tax Act 1961. You can claim tax benefit against the premium paid for self, spouse, children and dependent parents.

There are numerous health insurance plans available such as individual health insurance, family health cover, critical illness cover and many others. Buying Health Insurance is a crucial part of financial planning and you should pick an adequate health cover for self and family.

The writer is the Founder and CEO, ComparePolicy.com