The global economy has now reached a certain state that people have to be extremely choosy and selective about their expenses. Like any other asset with tangible value, health can also be insured, and in order to protect ourselves and our families from serious financial trouble caused by illness, obtaining health insurance coverage is essential for both you and your family. A mediclaim policy is designed to compensate the medical expenses of a policyholder, and thus saving them from a significant financial loss.

Health Insurance Types:

Health insurance policies can be generally categorized in two types - individual health plan and family floater mediclaim policy. The main difference between the two lies in their coverage.

Against an individual health insurance plan, a family floater health plan provides health insurance to a complete family. Whereas, it is always a single person getting insurance coverage against an individual health plan. With the ever swelling medical costs, having health insurance coverage has become primarily important. However, it actually takes ample amounts of time to gain a health cover that serves you well. Often, people are in a dilemma, whether to opt for an individual mediclaim or go for a family health insurance plan. Comparing both the plans and their benefits is the only way that can help you determine which plan suits you best.

Factors to Weigh:

Here are a few things that you must consider before buying a family mediclaim policy.

Types:

Managed Care Plan (MCP) is amongst the most popular health insurance policies. One of the major reasons for its popularity is the numerous options it has to offer. For instance, a policyholder can exclusively choose his family members for whom he/she wishes to provide an insurance cover. Compared to this, a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan is equally good, however, as a policy holder you can avail treatments only from a limited network of medical practitioners, approved by insurance company. Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plan and Point of Service Plan (POS) are also pretty popular and turn out to be extremely beneficial in certain cases.

Costs:

Along with the coverage offered by your health insurance policy, the cost of the coverage is another factor that you must carefully weigh, prior to buying a mediclaim. The cost of a plan is directly proportionate with its coverage. Thus, it is critical that you opt for a policy that you can afford and will not be forced to abandon it midway due to your inability to pay regular premiums. The premium must fit into your household budget and should never be a financial burden on your shoulder.

There are often some family members who require special medical attention for certain critical illnesses and you must also make sure that those are covered by the family floater mediclaim policy that you are going to buy for the best advantage of you and your family in case of a sudden illness of any of the members of the family.