With health hazards increasing in India due to many reasons lifestyle and environmental factors being a few, in such times availing for a health insurance plan becomes an absolute necessity. A basic health insurance plan basically offers a great deal of benefits which protects your family and yourself from unexpected medical expenditure. Such policies cover for medical treatment expenses, pre and post-hospitalisation costs, room rent and critical illnesses amongst others.

Here are a few health policy plans which are available in India;

Individual health insurance plans

Opting for an individual health plan indicates that only the person availing it will be able to claim the benefit of the sum assured along with all the benefits covered in the plan and it is non-transferrable.

The advantages of such plans are as follows—Offers a higher protection to individuals rather than as a family, the policy can be renewed without any age restrictions, best suited for individuals with health risks, the family will not be subjected to risk even if the plan expires in a year.

Family floater health insurance plans

A family floater plan acts as an umbrella health cover for the entire family. In order to obtain a cumulative health cover for the entire family by paying a single premium and the health coverage amount can be utilised for hospitalisation expense of any family member.

However, there are advantages and disadvantages of such policies. The biggest advantage is that you get to avail a cover for the family (4 children along with 2 adults) at a much cheaper rate. While the disadvantage lies with the fact that the entire amount of the cover can be exhausted due to hospitalisation charges of a single member.

Senior citizen health insurance plans

Much like the individual health plans, senior citizen health plans however, come with stringent medical checkups, high premium amount, longer waiting period for pre-existing illnesses and a many more exclusion clauses. It is preferred to purchase health insurance plans for parents before they grow too old.

Top-up and super top-up health insurance plans

These plans come with a ‘deductible’ clause and is effected only after the specified amount is incurred as hospitalisation expenses. For example, if one has opt for a top-up or super top-up policy of Rs 20 lakh with a deductible of Rs 5 lakh then on hospitalisation he will be eligible to claim for all the hospitalisation expenses over the deductible amount.

One of the biggest advantage of these policies is that despite an applicable deductible clause, a large cover can be purchased at a low premium, a basic health policy can be purchased whose sum assured will be equal to the deductible.

Critical illnesses health insurance plans

These plans basically cover those specific illnesses often avoided by many insurers like heart disease or cancer. The premium for such policies are high since the risk fore the insurer is also equally high.

Therefore, with these basic health insurance plans available in the country, it is time to start planning for your family’s as well as your health.