Today, health insurance is one of the most crucial elements you can have in your financial portfolio. Even in its most basic form, a health policy will help you take care of hospital and doctors’ bills after an accident or medical emergency.
But how many kinds of health policies are there? Let’s take a look:
- Individual Health Insurance – If you’re purchasing your own policy, you’ll opt for an individual plan. Under this, you can choose to customise your medical insurance by opting for riders and add-ons based on your personal medical history. You could also get a family floater policy, which covers up to 6 or 8 family members under a single umbrella policy.
- Group or Employer Health Insurance – Depending on where you work, your employer may provide health insurance as one of your many work benefits. This cover is often quite basic, and relatively the same for all the employees.
Is Employer Cover Enough?
If you think the policy your HR department told you about will help take care of all your medical problems, you may be mistaken. These plans come with low caps on daily room rent and high co-pay clauses. But since they are more affordable, especially when bought for a number of employees together, companies often choose this kind of low-maintenance policy for their employees. Sadly, this often means that you end up paying a large chunk of your medical bills out of your own pocket.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits you could enjoy if you picked an individual plan, and what you’re missing out on if you choose to stick with only your employer’s insurance:
| Features | Individual Plan | Employer-Provided Insurance |
| Co-Pay Clause | You can opt to not pay a percentage of every claim you make | You will be required to pay a percentage of the total claim amount |
| Room Rent Limit | Depending on the provider, you can choose the limit on room rent per day | Cost of per day room rent will only be covered up to a certain amount, and cannot be increased |
| Cover for Family Members | You can cover all your family members under a single family floater policy | Generally, the insurance cover will not extend to your spouse, parents or children |
| Cover After Retirement | You can continue to renew your policy even after you retire, up to the maximum age allowed on the chosen plan | Once you retire, you will no longer have access to the group insurance cover |
Your employer’s insurance cover may be able to help you out in the short-term, while you’re still with that particular company. However, in the long run, you would be better off investing in a medical insurance policy that allows you to decide on how much cover you want and what kind of benefits and add-ons you need. Secure your future with health insurance today.
