What Is The Difference Between Health Plan And Health Insurance?

While discussing health covers, people generally get stuck on a split road, both looking identical. On one glance, the terms Health Plan and Health Insurance seem the same. This exactly is where an untrained eye is mistaken. In reality, the difference in between these two terms is as wide as the difference in sea water and fresh water.

A Health Plan (also known as mediclaim) is basically a health cover that covers the cost incurred during one's hospitalization. On the contrary, a Health Insurance is a broader health cover that covers everything beginning from the diagnosis of the illness.

Broadening the Horizon

As mentioned earlier, a Health Plan can only be triggered when the covered person is hospitalized. The cost that the insurance company is payable is only the hospital's final bill, which generally excludes certain consumables. Normally, the cap for a Health Plan is usually less, falling somewhere around Rs 5 Lakhs. There are different kinds of Health Plans specifically tailored for every man's need. A family man would find it easier to buy a Health Plan that covers his family of four. Senior citizens have special benefits that tag along with their mediclaim.

Lately, certain Health Plans do offer a combined plan for distant relatives as well. Also, one can request for any number of claims until the insured amount exhausts. For instance, a man claimed Rs 2 lakh in hospital bills for his knee surgery, while the sum insured is Rs 5 lakhs. In such a case, he is eligible to put forward another claim in case of another hospitalization, for there is still a sum of Rs 3 lakhs remaining as a cover.

Health Insurance works in a highly broader field. It doesn't just cover one's hospitalization bills, but even takes care of the pre and post hospitalization cost. Just like in a critical illness policy, Health Insurances take care of the loss of income suffered when the family's breadwinner is diagnosed with an illness that is financially detrimental as well. Falling at a range of Rs 60 lakhs, the limit over the assured sum of money is pretty vast.

It is not necessary to be hospitalized in order to extract a claim in case of Health Insurances. All you need to do is show a proof of the diagnosis of that particular illness and the job's done. There is no purpose in making multiple claims here for the insurance company pays you a lump sum amount once the claim is proven.

Summing It Up

No matter how lucrative one sounds than the other, both the plans come equally handy when you compare a person's need. A thorough discussion with your advisor is something that would make you sure of a particular health cover policy. Apart from these, Health Plans and Health Insurances also provide you pre-defined tax benefits. A visit to the doctor no more is an agony on your financial health.