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How to Maximise Your Health Insurance Benefits with a Limited Salary

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Created on
July 25, 2023

Summary

What’s Inside

Are you just getting started with your career or considering making a career switch? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you may be earning a limited salary. Despite this, you can adjust your monthly budget to accommodate the premiums for a medical insurance policy and maximise your health insurance benefits. Let's find out how.

What is Health Insurance?

Health insurance is a type of insurance policy that covers various medical expenses like the costs of specific healthcare treatments, general hospitalization, doctor’s consultation fees, certain surgeries and other medical procedures. In case you or anybody else covered by your health insurance policy requires medical treatment for an illness, you can raise a claim against the policy with your insurer to cover the costs incurred. 

If the policy covers the costs for which you have raised a claim, your insurance provider will settle the claim in one of two ways: 

  • Reimbursement: Here, the insurer reimburses you for the costs you have paid out of pocket. 
  • Cashless Claim Settlement: Here, if you have sought medical care in a network hospital, the insurer directly pays your bills, so you do not have to pay the covered costs out of pocket. 

Benefits of Health Insurance

Now, let's look at what the benefits of health insurance are. They can typically include the following: 

  • Financial protection against unexpected medical expenses
  • Access to a network of healthcare providers
  • Coverage for preventive medical services like health checkups
  • Comprehensive coverage for hospitalization, surgeries, maternity care and more
  • Reduced out-of-pocket expenses via deductible and co-payments

3 Strategies to Maximise Your Health Insurance Benefits

With a well-planned budget and some useful strategies, you can purchase a medical insurance plan and maximise your health insurance benefits. Here’s how:

1. Purchase a Plan with Restoration Benefits

Many salaried people in the country may not be aware of what the restoration benefit is in health insurance. If your insurance plan has this feature, it means that the sum insured under your policy will be restored to its maximum limit immediately after a portion of it is utilized for a claim. 

For example, say your health insurance plan offers a sum insured of Rs. 3 lakhs, and you raise a claim against the plan for Rs. 2 lakhs. After a few months, you find that you require heart surgery, which costs you Rs. 3 lakhs. You can again raise a claim for the entire amount as it would have been restored to the original sum insured of Rs. 3 lakhs. 

2. Choose Network Hospitals

Network hospitals are medical institutions that have collaborated with your insurance provider to offer various benefits to policyholders. These benefits include: 

  • Cashless claim settlement
  • No out-of-pocket payment for expenses covered
  • Access to preventive care programs and wellness initiatives within the network
  • Additional benefits like hospital discounts for policyholders

With these added advantages, you can further reduce the amount you spend on medical care. This allows you to maximise your health insurance benefits even on a limited salary. 

3. Make the Most of Preventive Care Coverage

Preventive care coverage is one of the most overlooked benefits of health insurance benefits in India. However, most health insurance policies cover the costs of preventive care like diagnostics, master checkups, scans and more. You can take advantage of these benefits to detect potential health problems early, so they are easier and less expensive to treat. 

Top-Up Your Health Insurance for Added Coverage

Fi, and its licensed partner Federal Bank, provides a salary program with many benefits. You get 2% cashback when you shop using Fi. 4x Fi-Coins on all your spends via Fi — all of which you can redeem for vouchers, cool merch, etc. Other perks include, flat 20% of your Debit Card spends as Fi-Coins, no minimum balance, a free VISA Platinum debit card with zero forex charges, priority customer service & more. Did we mention a ₹500 Amazon voucher as a joining bonus yet? P.S. Salary users on Fi can now top-up their Health Insurance up to ₹20L!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is it good to take top-up health insurance?

There are many health insurance benefits you can get with a top-up plan, such as enhanced medical insurance coverage and adequate protection from medical inflation. 

2. Can I reduce the sum assured in health insurance?

Yes, some health insurance policies allow you to reduce the sum assured if your financial requirements have changed. 

3. Can I increase the coverage amount in a health insurance plan?

Yes, some health insurance plans give you the option to increase your health insurance coverage if your financial requirements increase over time. 

4. What is the minimum salary required for mediclaim insurance coverage?

The minimum salary required to enjoy the benefits of a mediclaim insurance policy may vary from one employer to another. 

5. Can we upgrade our health insurance at any time?

Yes, some health insurance policies in India allow policyholders to upgrade their medical insurance coverage as needed.

Disclaimer

Fi Money is not a bank; it offers banking services through licensed partners and investment services through epiFi Wealth Pvt. Ltd. and its partners. This post is for information only and is not professional financial advice.
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