Today to treat an illness comes at a high price. Medical treatment is now recognized with high cost treatment that runs on the lines of international standards. If you had to choose a hospital to treat an illness/disease of your loved one, you would surely choose the one that is the best. Like mentioned above, treating illnesses and diseases are a pretty expensive affair to indulge in. If you have a mediclaim, you need not worry with the finances.

In foreign countries, health insurance is mandatory but such is not the case in India. The percentage of population that is medically insured is still quite low. The insurance companies try their best to make it available to as many as people possible but due to low penetration of insurance awareness not many are under its protection. A policy is however made obtainable for all age groups; even to an infant of 3 months and extends to a person who is 75 years of age. Some insurance companies offer health insurance for the entire family.

A mediclaim policy is a health insurance product that provides for reimbursement of expenses incurred for hospitalization for certain injury, illnesses or/and diseases. A mediclaim policy covers not only the expenses incurred during hospitalisation but also the pre and post-hospitalisation expenses but they are subject to conditions that you need to be completely aware of before getting into it.

The best part of having a health insurance policy is the cashless settlement, which enables the individual to get admission in any hospital without any initial payment. For the cashless settlement facility, the individual does not have to pay any extra cash with the premium amount.

But a lot of customers are not quite aware of this facility. Before a hospital can offer the cashless facility, it has to be empanelled by the Third Party Administrators (TPAs). TPAs are the professional intermediaries between the insurance companies and the insured. Some customers view it as a complex process and hence prefer to stay out of it. But no reason is strong enough to prevent an individual from purchasing a mediclaim.

When opting for a health insurance policy, you need to bear the following in mind:

• Keep a copy of the original policy
• You need to keep a copy of the bills, reports
• You need to see how many hospitals the insurance company covers
• Read the documents carefully, since many a times, individuals opt for health insurance without knowing the illness/diseases the policy covers
• Understand the policy and its details well

Every individual should be covered under a mediclaim policy as it takes care of the medical expenses when you are saddled with tension and of course the fat bills. Remember true health is true wealth. It is worth every rupee that you put in the premium payment for your health protection. A mediclaim policy is a must-have for every individual and it helps to gain control over the finances at the time of an unplanned event that comes in the form of medical expenses. With just a paltry sum as premium, you can save huge future costs.