Hidden benefits in your health insurance policy!
Okay, first of all, if you don’t have a health insurance policy, you need to get one right now!
And if you’re confused about how to choose one, we just wrote about it last time. Check it out HERE.
Now, if you know what a health insurance policy does, let me tell you about some hidden benefits that most health insurance policies provide, which are ignored by a lot of us!
Let’s quickly look at them:
1. Free Health check-ups: A lot of policies these days come with a free health check-up provision, where if you haven’t claimed anything in the current year, you are eligible to claim the money spent on your health check-up (with a maximum limit, of course). Generally, this goes up to a couple of thousand rupees in one year, varying from policy to policy
2. Automatic Restoration of Sum Insured: Some policies offer automatic restoration of up to the Sum Insured once a year after the Sum Insured has been exhausted. This means that even if your Sum Insured has been exhausted, it gets restored once more in the year for you to claim. This effectively means that your Sum Insured is actually twice the amount given in the policy. However, this is not a very common feature, and comes with certain terms and conditions
Hold on! If you’re not a subscriber to this blog, hit the below button to receive fortnightly updates on Personal Finance topics!
Now, moving on..
3. Hospital cash benefit: Another common feature that a lot of companies provide is Hospital Cash benefit, which is a fixed amount (say about Rs. 800 - 1,200) per day given for hospitalization. This amount is to cover other out of pocket expenses that are not covered by insurance. No questions asked. There is a limit on the amount as well as the maximum number of days it can be claimed for, but this acts as a good cushion to cover out of pocket expenses
4. Tax Benefit: Lastly, needless to mention, the premium that you pay for your health insurance policy can be claimed as a deduction in your income, and therefore, lower your tax. So if you buy a heath insurance policy worth Rs. 10,000 - you get a deduction of Rs. 10,000. And if you’re in the 30% tax slab, this means you pay Rs. 3,000 less in Income Tax
Having said all of this, you need to be careful while choosing a health insurance policy. First, look at the other numbers and ratios of the company (discussed in the earlier article), reputation of the company and a lot of other things. These fringe benefits should be the last things to consider. Also keep in mind that a company that offers a LOT of these fringe benefits at a very low premium may mean a red flag. So look for a policy that has a good balance of everything.
If you’re looking for a health insurance policy, feel free to reach out to us here for unbiased advice, and we’ll help you get one: https://bit.ly/3JjQUIO