Benefits Of A Health Insurance Policy That Are Not Well-Known

Often, the confusing nature of Health Insurance makes you doubt its true worth, pushing you to postpone its purchase. The doubts in your mind can span from ‘Do I really need Health Insurance’ to ‘I suffer from Diabetes, so will I be covered in case of hospitalization’. All these doubts often end up giving rise to fears regarding the real use of a Health Insurance policy. And even if we take one, it might not have the right Sum Insured, might just be a corporate policy which is not enough, or might not have the right add-ons that are actually beneficial.

Some Lesser Known Benefits Of Health Insurance

• Outpatient Department (OPD) cover in Health Insurance

One of the options that you can include with your Health Insurance Plan is the Outpatient Department (OPD) cover. It’s an additional cover provided by the health insurer with extra premium, which covers charges other than hospitalization expenses normally covered under a regular Health Insurance policy. Do check with your insurer if it’s covered. Also, you may not get this cover for things like prescription lenses or glasses, cosmetic procedures like plastic surgery, ambulatory devices like glucometer, BP monitors, and even health supplements.

• At-Home Treatment in Health Insurance

There are ailments that could be treated at home, called Domiciliary Hospitalization. Like in the case of an illness or injury, one may not require intensive care like provided in a hospital. In such cases, the treatment or medical services could go on for months. Thankfully, there are certain insurance companies that cover such expenses, with an additional premium though. But then, these treatments may not cover illnesses like Asthma, Bronchitis, Tonsillitis, Epilepsy, Upper Respiratory Tract Infections, etc.

• Restoration Benefit in Health Insurance

There could be an unfortunate situation in the family when all the members have had to be hospitalized at different times in a year for various ailments and the sum insured is exhausted in the same policy year itself. Thankfully, ‘Restoration Benefit’ lets you reinstate the entire sum insured in the policy year with an extra premium. This is more useful when you have a floater policy. Suppose there is an accident in the family and your insurance cover is Rs.5 lakhs for 5 insured members. With restoration benefits, each insured member is covered for Rs.5 lakhs. So, the overall cover for the entire family increases to Rs.25 lakhs. That means, you benefit with a higher total sum insured in that year.

• Alternate Treatment in Health Insurance

Today, you can seek insurance cover for AYUSH treatments as well, that is, Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. Depending on your plan, Sum Insured for this ranges from ₹2,500 to ₹20,000. While AYUSH is surely an option, according to a certain survey it has been found that 90% of Indians prefer allopathy over AYUSH though. But what your Health Insurance may not pay for is pre-hospitalization and post-hospitalization expenses, day care procedure and outpatient medical expenses. This also includes all preventive and rejuvenation treatments (non-curative in nature) including treatments that are not medically covered.

• Convalescence Benefit in Health Insurance

Convalescence or recovery benefit is a lump sum that is given by a health insurer to cover expenses that might be incurred post hospitalization. This is also helpful in cases like loss of income due to prolonged hospitalization or expenses incurred by family members. In some cases, even compassionate visits by family members are covered. Do make sure you get yourself familiar with the eligible benefit amount and period of coverage, much before.

• Daily Cash Allowance Cover in Health Insurance

This cover helps in taking care of day-to-day expenses when you are admitted in the hospital, like cost of food and hospital visits for family members. In case a patient is there in ICU, the allowance is often raised to double. Payment of such a claim is covered only for a certain period opted by the insurer, that is, till the time a person is hospitalized and not after discharge.

Conclusion

So you see, there’s so much you probably may not be aware of, and have missed out on. These lesser known benefits of health insurance can really save the day for you. 

Also read- Which Is Better For Me: Short-Term Or Long-Term Health Insurance?

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