With the rising stress levels, rapidly changing lifestyle, sedentary habits, and unhealthy eating habits, it is quite natural to develop some type of illness over a period of time. If a provision is not created for such medical situations in advance, the person might have to struggle arranging funds for quality healthcare treatments at a future date.
Women looking to future proof their health by creating a medical fund that can assist them in getting quality medical treatments without bearing the enormous financial burden should get a good health insurance policy at the earliest. You can easily find individual health insurance policies that offer some great coverage benefits to women, even in their standard plan.
If you’re on the fence regarding your insurance buying decision, this guide is sure to help. We’ve listed down some important benefits that women can get by securing themselves under a good health insurance policy.
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- Affordable Premiums
The best part of individual health insurance plans is their affordability. If you’re looking for a policy with basic coverage terms, the premiums will generally be affordable. It increases as you tend to enhance the coverage. The premium amount for standard health u insurance plans is usually dependent on the type of coverage you need, the add-ons you wish to include, the sum insured, and a lot more, so adjust any of these if you want to lower your premiums.
Using online premium calculators is a great way to find out the approximate premium you’ll have to pay depending on the type of coverage you need. Just put in the required details correctly, and the calculator will display the near accurate premium figure within a few seconds. You can use this calculator to shortlist the policy you want to proceed with.
- Cover for Maternity Expenses
One of the biggest expenses a woman can encounter is her maternity-related expenses. If you’re planning to get your delivery done at a good hospital, be ready to shell out a significant amount of money. As treatment expenses related to child delivery, newborn vaccinations, medically necessary terminations, c-section delivery, and others are sky-high, you will need medical funds to cover the full expenses during your delivery at a future date.
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As most policies have a waiting period before which women cannot claim their maternity benefits, be sure to get yourself insured as early as possible. It will ensure, by the time your delivery date approaches near, you’ll be able to claim the expenses without any hassle.
- Easy to Add Family Members by Upgrading the Policy
Individual health insurance policies are great for young, unmarried individuals. Still, you can also upgrade your policy whenever you want by including your family members in the coverage for an additional premium. If you have dependent parents, kids, or spouse, you can get them included in your health insurance policy at your discretion. The entire process is quick, hassle-free, and maximises convenience.
- Coverage against Critical Illness
The chances of getting an illness due to the various factors mentioned at the beginning are pretty high in today’s environment. In such cases, it is essential that women secure their health by creating an emergency medical fund for their treatment at a future date.
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When buying individual health insurance with good coverage, women can claim treatment expenses for critical illnesses, including cancer, heart attacks, kidney failure, etc. As the treatment costs of all these illnesses are significantly high, you should not take the risk of not securing yourself against critical illness.
- Additional Protection Over & Above Your Employer Cover
Working professionals are generally covered under group health insurance offered by their employer. But the downside to this policy is the coverage exists only till the employment with the employer lasts.
Moreover, the coverage is limited, and one cannot customise it as per individual requirements. If you, too, have been covered under a similar policy by your employer, you should get a separate, individual health insurance for customised coverage benefits and longer policy duration.
- Tax Benefits
One of the greatest benefits of buying an individual health insurance policy is getting to claim the premium paid as a deduction in tax returns. If you are the sole insured covered in the policy, you can claim deductions upto a maximum of Rs.25, 000. But if you have dependent parents included in the policy, you can claim an additional deduction of Rs. 25,000 (if the parents are under 60 years of age) or Rs.50, 000 (if the dependent parents are 60 or above years of age). To claim this medical insurance tax benefit, don’t forget to ask for the tax benefit certificate from the insurer.
- Cashless Claim Benefit
Insurance companies partner with various good hospitals to provide their policyholders with the benefit of cashless claims. Under this clause, if you visit any hospital mentioned in the insurer’s network hospital for treatment, you won’t have to bear any out-of-pocket expenses. The treatment expenses will be settled between the insurer and the hospital.
You can fill a pre-authorization form that allows you to enjoy the cashless claim benefit by merely displaying your insurance card at the hospital. To get maximum advantage of this facility, make sure the insurer you’re purchasing the policy from has several good hospitals added to its list of partner hospitals.
Also read: Top Best Common Preventive Health Care Tips For Women
- Option to Enhance Coverage by Purchasing Add-ons
If the coverage in the standard health insurance plan doesn’t seem enough, you can easily enhance the coverage by purchasing some relevant add-ons. Not all insurance companies will offer the exact same add-ons, so you’ll have to check which insurer offers what add-ons to improve the policy’s coverage.
As every add-on comes with an additional charge that gets added to the recurring premium, be sure to only add the add-ons that you really need. It will ensure your policy has all the necessary things covered for a reasonable and justified premium.
- No Claim Bonus Benefit
Insurance companies tend to reward policyholders for leading a healthy lifestyle and staying safe. So if you timely paid your policy premiums and never filed for a claim for a few consecutive years, you will receive its benefit in the form of deduction in your premium. To know how much no claim bonus the insurer offers, read the terms and conditions of the policy before buying it. You can easily find no claim bonus related information on the insurer’s website.
- Futureproof Your Health by Creating a Medical Emergency Fund
Lastly, the biggest benefit women can get by purchasing an individual health insurance policy is peace of mind. As the health insurance acts as an emergency fund which, when in need, can be used to avail good medical treatments, women will have one less thing to worry about. Just keep paying the premium on time, and the insurer will take care of the rest. Just to be on the relatively safer side, make sure you’re aware of what’s included and what’s excluded in your purchased policy if you want to avoid any unpleasant shockers at the time of the claim settlement process.
On top of all these benefits, having an individual health insurance plan can also make women feel confident as they know they’ll have something to rely on during their time of medical emergency. If you’re a woman who doesn’t want to compromise with the quality of treatment owing to the rising medical treatment costs, getting standard health insurance can solve more than half your problems. So start looking for good health insurance policies today, and get one at the earliest for a safe, secure, healthy, and worry-free future.
