Health insurance is a type of insurance policy which settles the hospital bills and other related bills to the insured members in case of a hospitalization due to an illness or disease. The health insurance is available as Retail/ Personal health insurance and Group health insurance. The group health insurance is also referred to as employee health insurance as the employers would take a group health insurance policy to cover their employees.
The employee health insurance can be extended to cover the family members of the employee on payment of additional premium to the insurance company. The employee health insurance can be a contributory policy where a part of the premium or full premium would be paid by the employee.
The members of the employee health insurance would be eligible for health cards which can be used to avail cashless claim settlement facility at any of the network hospitals. The health cards carry the basic information of the members which would be utilised at the time of claim settlement. The employee health insurance policy would be valid for a period of one year after which it has to be renewed with the same or different insurer.
Are you confused about deciding when to buy a health insurance policy? Can you purchase a health insurance policy at any time?
Here is an explanation to your questions related to health insurance as well as group health insurance policy. For the purpose of understanding we have divided the time to purchase a health insurance policy into two periods. One period is while you are earning or actively employed and the other period is after your retirement or as a senior citizen.
- While working/ Self employed:- Health insurance can be bought at any age and there is no limitation on the time during which the health insurance can be purchased. In this stage you would be working or self employed and have a continuous stream of income. The age in this period ranges from 18 years to 60 years. During this period you have the income to purchase or renew your health insurance policy.
In the early stages of this period, there would be no medical check-ups required and the policy can be obtained very easily. The premium to be paid in a health insurance policy depends on the age of the customer as well as the coverage required. There would be a loading in premium if there are any pre-existing conditions. As the age of the customer increases, the premium tends to increase.
- After retirement:- Health insurance can be purchased after retirement. This stage would see people depending on pension or any other unconventional source such as funds from family and relatives etc. People would have pre-existing conditions and other conditions limiting their chances of getting a health insurance policy.
Co-pay would be compulsory for all the policies taken after this stage as most companies offer senior citizen health insurance policies with co-pay ranging from 10% to 50%.
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