Indianapolis Life Insurance

 

 

Health Insurance or Medical Insurance

 

Health insurance is insurance that covers the insured for his medical expenses only; it will not provide death benefit caused by whatever situation. If the insured suffers an accident or illness, the medical expenses incurred will be paid by the insurance company, thus health insurance is also called medical insurance.

 

Some basic health insurance policies do not cover major illnesses and critical medical conditions. The insurance company will normally issue a medical card to the policyholder, with this card the hospital admission and medical bills will be taken care of upon the discharge at the appointed panel hospital.

 

The benefits of a medical insurance provided by the insurance companies vary, but basically the features are quite same, that include:

 

·        Room and board expenses, daily and maximum up to 120 or 365 days, including nursing care and dietary requirements. Once the length of stay has been exhausted, there will be no more benefit provided.

 

·        Intensive care, daily and maximum up to 120 days

 

·        Operation fees

 

·        Anaesthetic fees

 

·        Diagnostic expenses

 

·        Medical specialist consultation fees

 

·        Hospitalization

 

·        Ambulance services

 

·        Outpatient payment

 

·        Miscellaneous services including X-rays and medications.

 

The benefits are specified in the policy, different policies provide different benefits and services.

 

Different Types Of Health Insurance Policies

 

Health insurance is also referred to as medical insurance; its coverage is medical expenses.  An accident is an injury that resulted from accident; a sickness is an illness or disease that is not caused by accident. There are some policies provide just one or combination of benefits. Knowing the difference is important because like health insurance only covers medical and surgical expenses resulting from sickness and accident, also an accident insurance does not include sickness, like wise a life insurance does not cover accident and sickness, to have all these coverage one needs to purchase a few separate policies.  

 

Health insurance is designed to cover two types of losses; the policy is categorized into Disability Income Policy and Medical Expense Policy

 

Disability Income Policy

 

Disability Income Policy can also be referred to as loss of income. This type of policy will compensate the insured if he is disabled and can no longer work to earn a regular income. The payment can be weekly or monthly depending on the policy.

 

Most people give more attention to life insurance than other kinds of supplemental insurance. When a person becomes crippled or disabled and unable to work, his livelihood will change drastically. As living standard is getting higher each day, a disabled person suffers mentally and physically, no income and yet he has to struggle for a living and medical treatment.

 

Disability income insurance can help to generate at least a portion of the disabler’s lost income; this replacement of income can help to alleviate his infliction.

 

Disability income insurance is available individually and as a portion of a group benefit provided by an employer in their group package. Individual policies are often sold to self-employed and professional people. The amount of benefit is generally up to 60% of monthly net income.

 

However, disability income insurance is essential for a bread-winner, it relates to the overall family finances, this provides income replacement if the insured becomes disabled and produces no income.

 

When buying for a health or accident insurance care must be taken when talking about “total disability”, because different companies may have different definition on total disability.

 

Total disability can be defined as the insured’s inability to perform any or all the duties of his occupation. But if the insured may no longer be able to conduct the duties of his current occupation but may be able to perform duties in a relevant field should this classify as total disability or not, some companies may have their own definition, therefore read the fine print carefully.

 

Some criterions to classified total disability in many of the disability income policies called presumptive disability are adopted; these may automatically qualify the insured for total disability classification.

 

These conditions are

 

·        Total and permanently loss of sight

 

·        Loss of two limbs

 

·        Loss of hearing

 

·        Loss of speech

 

If the earnings after disability significantly drop to a given percentage, the insured may be considered as totally disabled, or the compensation may be made by percentage on the sum insured.

 

Other disability categories are confining, non-confining, residual, partial, recurrent, delayed, combined accident and sickness and non-disabling, be aware of their existence and check them out from the policy for these types of disability.

 

Most companies offer optional short term benefits for an additional cost, a typical disability income policy may include all or part or none of these features, these are

 

Supplemental income – this provides additional income during the first several months of a long-term disability.

 

Hospital income – this pays a stipulated amount per day when hospitalization has extended for a certain period.

 

Indemnities – this provides lump-sum payments for certain injuries like fractures, dislocation of bones, sprains or amputations of fingers or toes.

 

Medical Expense Policy

 

Medical expense policy has a wide range of coverage from minimal to comprehensive packages. Some provide coverage include both accidents and illnesses, various hospital expenses and other costs pertaining to medical care.

 

Things to be considered when buying medical expense policy

 

·        Does the policy feature only specific benefits or is the coverage comprehensive?

 

·        Do you need to choose the specific providers or hospitals?

 

·        Is the plan limited to a specific region or is it worldwide.

 

Common exclusions and limitations

 

Both disability and medical expense policies have limitations and exclusions on certain types of injury and illness. It is important for a buyer to know those items that fall into the common exclusions and limitations.

 

·        Existing diseases before purchasing the policy

 

·        Suicide

 

·        Self-inflicted injuries

 

·        Injuries or death resulted from commotion and war

 

·        Military duty injuries

 

·        Injuries while committing a crime

 

·        Non-commercial air travel

 

·        Injury or death due to the influence of alcohol or narcotics.

 

·        Vision treatment such as eye exam, eyeglasses and contact lenses.

 

·        Cosmetic surgery other than accident injury.

 

·        Sexually transmitted diseases.

 

·        Organ transplant

 

·        Alcohol and drug abuse treatment

 

·        Any condition that specified in the policy

 

Group Health Insurance

 

Many employers provide group health coverage as a benefit to their employees, either by paying the entire premium or share part of it.

 

As opposed to a single person covers by an individual policy a specific group of people is covered by a single policy. Because of this circumstance the insurance companies have to take measure to make certain that the number of people covered by a group stays at a certain level. In normal practice in a group situation is to include all eligible employees regardless of physical condition or age.

 

A single master policy is issued to an individual or entity representing a group of people and is called the employer. The employer bears the responsibility to apply the coverage for the group, holds the policy and make premium payments to the insurance company when due.

 

All people regardless of their physical condition before they may be included in a group policy one condition must be met, that is they must apply for coverage during a specified eligibility period. An initial 90 days employment period is typical for group coverage, after which the employee has a 31 day eligibility period. If the employee fails to apply that eligibility period, then the employee will be required to take a physical examination.

 

This is how an insurer can afford to cover a group of people without individual selection. Otherwise some people might choose not to enroll until they discover they have an illness or they become disabled, therefore requiring a physical exam after the eligibility period helps to preclude this event.

 

Considerations needed when choosing a health insurance

 

·        Make sure the product is adequate for your needs.

 

·        Read the fine print and understand what is included and what is excluded

 

·        When does coverage begin?

 

·        Does the coverage include major medical expenses?

 

·        Does the coverage include prescriptions?

 

·        Does the coverage include X-rays and lab fees?

 

·        Do you have your own choice of physician and providers?

 

Individual Health Insurance

 

Individual or family health insurance is also commonly known as personal health insurance. Family health insurance is where you, your spouse and your children are all included in the same plan. If you work in a big organization your choice of group health insurance can be taken care of. But anyone who is self-employed or his/her employer does not provide insurance benefits to the employees; individual health insurance can be purchased for oneself and the family.

 

The qualifications and regulations of this policy vary from one insurance company to another, the difference is that the health plans available to individuals and families are not guaranteed issued. This means that if you have pre-existing medical condition the private health insurance company may turn you down for coverage, or they may approve you for medical insurance coverage but exclude benefits for treatments of your pre-existing condition.

 

Group health insurance may provide better benefits but some people can’t get this because they are self-employed or work in a small company, or they can’t enjoy COBRA benefits or for some other reasons. So people under these categories have to resort to individual health insurance; that is they buy their own insurance.

 

There are different types of private health insurance plans, such as indemnity health insurance, health maintenance organization plans, preferred provider organization plans and health savings account plans. Buyers should compare health insurance quotes and choose carefully, make sure the type of policy is suitable for you, because each plan has different cost and choice.  

 

Many insurance companies offer this product to individuals but if a person is over 50 years old, he might face some problems, the reasons are

 

·        If his health is not in good condition, the insurance companies will not take the risk to insure him. But the thing is, how many people can maintain a good health up to this age

 

·        The applicant might have to undergo a medical exam to prove that he is insurable

 

·        The applicant might get fewer benefits

 

It is not an easy thing to raise a family, you have to give your children good education so that they know what is good and what is bad, and at the meantime you must support them financially, but if you die prematurely, your asset may not be sufficient to raise them until they are self-support. Perhaps insurance is the most ideal scheme to solve this problem, but with a single plan the coverage might not be enough.

 

Compare health insurance quote is easy, just fill in the particulars needed, you can get to know more about different types of life insurance quote, shop carefully and make your money worth paying.

 

 

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