Important Health Insurance-related Terms You Should Know

We know that investing in health insurance is important but for someone who is new to the whole world of insurance, the legal and insurance-related terms can be daunting and confusing. While investing in a health insurance policy, it is vital you know and understand some commonly used terms. This will make it easier for you to compare policies and get a better understanding of what is being offered.

Common Terms You Should Know

Claim: This is the payment request that is made of the insured to the insurance company to make up for the medical expenses incurred.

Premium: Premium is what you pay at regular and timely intervals to the insurance company in order to keep the insurance policy active. You can pay the premium once a month, once in three months or once a year.

Critical Illness: A life-threatening or chronic condition that requires substantial and regular medical assistance will be termed as a critical illness. A basic or standard health insurance policy does not cover critical illnesses, so you need to add them as riders to provide yourself and your loved ones with comprehensive medical protection.

Deductible: A deductible is a concept of cost-sharing which can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the claim amount. This means that the insurance company will not be liable to pay for that amount under fixed expenses.

Pre-existing disease: A pre-existing disease is any health-related condition, ailment, or injury which the insured had symptoms, and/or was diagnosed, and/or received medical advice or treatment within 48 months prior to the policy being issued. You need to mention all pre-existing diseases to the insurance company so that there is no problem during the claim process.

Network: This refers to a group of doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers, who are covered under the policy to provide their services to the insured at a lower cost than their normal fee.

Sum Insured: This is the amount of money that the insurance company is liable to pay to the insured when the health insurance policy is put to use.

Waiting Period: During the waiting period, certain benefits will not be available to the insured. Usually, this is a fixed period that starts with the date of commencement of policy. The usual waiting period for pre-existing conditions is 6 months.

Family Floater Policies: This is where you can have a single health insurance policy to cover all the medical treatment expenses for the entire family, generally spouse and/or children.

Pre and Post Hospitalization Coverage: There will be instances where you will require medical assistance before and after being hospitalized and that is exactly where pre and post hospitalization coverage comes into play.

Co-payment: Co-payment is where a certain percentage of the claim is paid by the insured while the rest of it is paid by the insurance company.

Riders: These are add-ons or additional protection that the insured includes in the health insurance policy. You will have to pay an additional premium once you include riders to the policy.

Conclusion

Health comes above everything else so you should do all that you can to protect yourself and take good care of your health. In fact, it has become so easy to get health insurance in Dubai. There are so many options available in the market so you can easily compare the different policies offered by insurance companies and select the one that is best for you.

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