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The cost of medical treatments and other expenses associated with medical care is rising by the day. These costs sometimes may even rise exponentially. Hence acquiring a robust health insurance policy has gained a lot of importance. There are various policies associated with medical insurance that are offered such as individual, family and senior citizen medical insurance. It is important to select a policy that best suits your needs.
There are a variety of reasons so as to why health insurance policies vary across gender, a trend that has emerged of late. Before we try to understand the need for gender-based health insurance, it is important to know certain basics about health insurance.
To begin with, we should understand what a health insurance premium is. It is the fixed amount you pay to your health insurance provider to cover your health risks over a fixed period. Health policy generally offers coverage for pre-hospitalisation as well as post-hospitalisation expenses in addition to in-patient (hospitalisation) treatment costs. The premium amount varies depending on factors such as duration of cover, sum insured, and several other benefits on offer.
One such factor that affects the premium is gender. There are many reasons such as gender-specific diseases, age and associated risk factors for a medical insurance policy to be gender based. Also, the number of working women in India is rising. Considering this, many companies are promoting policies for encouraging women empowerment. This has seen many health insurance providers offer medical insurance policies that are geared to the needs of women.
In addition to ones that discussed above, there are other aspects such as age and the city a person lives in, that come into play. Taking into consideration all the aforementioned pointers, women’s health insurance policies generally cost less than their male counterparts.
Health insurance policies in India typically are of significant complexity. That is why it is always important to analyse and understand the terms and conditions of the policy being offered. In essence, it is helpful to understand the fine print as well. Understanding these aspects helps us a lot during claims since we know the diseases that are covered as well as the degree of protection.
There are medical insurance policies that also offer coverage against critical illness. A comprehensive health cover is the one that offers coverage for such illnesses. In addition to these, medical insurance companies are now offering women-centric protection in this area as well. You can find special policies that cover conditions such as breast cancer, fallopian tube cancer, and cervical cancer.
The health insurance scenario in India is changing. With the addition of gender-based policies, we can expect a lot more changes. This begs a need to understand the medical coverage thoroughly for making a wise decision for your health insurance needs.