Health insurance is an essential investment these days, with the rising costs of medical expenses. And, opting for a comprehensive health insurance plan is the best way to ensure that you and your loved ones are taken care of in terms of medical expenses.

A comprehensive health insurance plan is one that provides all-encompassing coverage under a single policy, meaning that you don’t have to buy a number of different types of health insurance plans to cover a wide range of medical expenses. And, unlike basic health insurance plans, comprehensive policies tend to cover high-cost procedures like organ transplants and alternative forms of treatment.

Comprehensive health insurance plans have extensive coverage, including the following:

• In-patient Hospitalization – Like most health insurance plans, it will cover medical expenses incurred while hospitalized for over 24 hours, such as room rent charges, nursing charges, oxygen, ICU charges, etc.
• Pre & Post-Hospitalization – These are medical expenses incurred before you are admitted after discharge, it includes diagnostic tests, investigative procedures, follow-up tests, medication, and more.
• Daycare Procedures – Covers for daycare medical treatments undertaken in a hospital that require less than 24 hours, like dialysis, chemotherapy, angiography, radiotherapy, etc.
• Pre-Existing Diseases – It will also provide coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or asthma, after a waiting period of 1-4 years.
• Domiciliary Hospitalization – This covers situations where one requires treatment or hospitalization at home.
• Organ Donor Expenses – The policy may cover the costs incurred in the process of organ donation in case of an organ transplant.
• Critical Illness Treatment – It would provide cover for the treatment of critical illnesses like cancer, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, and paralysis, amongst others.
• Ambulance Charges – This covers the cost of emergency ambulance services.
• Annual Health Checkup – Complimentary annual medical tests to avoid any undiagnosed issues and ensure good health.
• Add-on Covers – You get the option to expand your coverage with add-ons covers, such as:
  • Maternity & Newborn Baby Cover – This covers expenses related to pregnancy and childbirth, as well as for the newborn baby.
  • AYUSH Treatment – It covers treatments under an alternative therapy such as Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and/or homoeopathy.
  • Hospital Cash Cover – A daily cash benefit during hospitalization, that you can use to cover expenses that go beyond the hospital bill.*
  • Zone Upgrade – With this add-on cover, you will be able to account for the differing costs for treatment in the different city zones across India.

NOTE: With Digit’s Comfort and Comfort Pro Plan, this is included as part of the policy itself.

There are many benefits that come with opting for a comprehensive health insurance plan:

1. Wide Coverage

Comprehensive plans come with a wide range of coverage for all kinds of health issues, such as unfortunate accidents, hospitalization expenses, day care procedures, and treatment for life-threatening critical illnesses, among many others.

Comprehensive health insurance plans also come with higher sum insured options so that you can have more coverage for your health expenses.

2. Protection from Medical Expenses

The extensive coverage means that comprehensive insurance plans tend to cover a wider majority of medical expenses. This includes expenses that may not be covered under basic plans, such as pre- and post-hospitalization, home hospitalization, medicines, etc.

Additionally, comprehensive plans often offer the benefit of having no room rent cap, higher ICU room rent limits, and a wider ambulance cover.

3. . Additional Coverages

With a comprehensive health plan, you will also be able to get more benefits that are not available with other health insurance plans. This includes things like a refill sum insured, where your SI will get replenished if you exhaust it during the policy period, or having no room rent capping (i.e. no maximum room rent limit) in your policy.

4. . Cashless Claims

Comprehensive health insurance policies also usually offer the facility of cashless claims, where your health insurer will take care of the bills directly with their network hospitals. Meaning you don’t need to pay any cash out of your own pocket (excluding any co-payments or deductibles).

5. Cumulative Bonus

Comprehensive health insurance policies come with a cumulative bonus benefit. For those who haven’t made any claims during the policy year, they will get an increase in their sum insured amount, without charging you any extra premium.

6. Lifetime Renewability

A comprehensive plan is one that offers lifetime renewability. So as long as you pay your premium, you can continue to enjoy the benefits of the plan, irrespective of your age.

7. Tax Benefits

When you buy a health insurance policy for yourself, or for your family members, you can claim tax benefits on the premium amount under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act.

• Not all comprehensive health insurance plans will be called this. Some may feature other names, like Digit’s Comfort Option.
• Compare the different health insurance plans available online based on their coverage benefits and premium before choosing the one that is most suitable for yourself.
• Remember to check for what is covered and not covered in your health insurance policy by reading through the terms and conditions.
• Pick the sum insured based on your healthcare needs and the number of people you’re covering in your health insurance policy.
• Don’t hide any critical information or medical history from your insurance company.
• If you can, customize your health insurance plan, with different add-ons for better coverage.
• Buy your health insurance early in life, so you will have more reasonable premiums and get through waiting periods faster.
• Go through the company’s customer reviews to know more about the services offered.
• See if the insurance provider offers extra benefits like add-ons, 24x7 support, and more.

Conclusion

Buying a comprehensive health insurance policy is one of the best investments one can make. Since it provides all-round protection, you can save money by not having to buy many different covers separately. It will also help protect your savings and get the best treatment without worrying about the hospital bills.

There are many different types of health insurance plans available today, such as individual health insurance, family floater health insurance, personal accident insurance, and more. Thus it is important to pick the right plan that suits your and your family’s requirements.