Most of us realise the importance of having a good health insurance policy. With rising health care costs and inflation, it is critical to have a comprehensive health coverage. It helps you get access to the best of healthcare without burning a hole in your savings.
However, not many understand the nuances of various types of plans, particularly when it comes to group insurance policies and individual or retail health insurance.
This article will tell you all you need to know about Group Health Insurance, and help you pick a plan that works best for you and your family.
1. The basics
Group insurance is a type of plan that offers health insurance cover to a select group of members. This could be a group of employees, or members of an organisation.
Individual health insurance is the coverage you buy for yourself or your family.
2. What’s the difference?
While both types of plans offer health cover benefits, it is important to understand how they are different. Here are the important things to remember:
3. Cost
Group insurance is affordable. The reason is, a group plan is a standardised coverage bought for a large number of members. This is similar to buying something in bulk. Members also get benefits of lower cost because the insurer’s risk is spread across the entire group of policyholders, and therefore command a lesser premium than individual health insurance policy.
4. Accessibility
With retail or individual health insurance, it is possible that an insurer may deny the policy to an individual for some reasons. These could be due to financial history, or because of medical reasons like a pre-existing condition.
In the case of group insurance through an employer, the process of under-writing is different and a detailed analysis of every employee’s health history is sometimes not required. All employees are eligible for health care coverage, and every new employee gets an automatic approval. That’s why it is easy to get group health insurance through your employer.
5. Control
This is where a retain health policy scores better than a group health policy given by the employer. In case of group plans, your employer, or the organisation chooses a plan that works best for the group as a whole.
This means, the employee can not pick and choose the terms, features and benefits individually. If you are buying an individual package, you have complete flexibility to set the terms. You can choose what options to take, what to avoid, and when to discontinue.
6. No Claim Bonus
In the conventional employer-provided group policy, you don’t get the benefit of “no claim” – when you don’t make any claim during the tenure. With individual health policies, not claiming gives you the added bonus, which is usually a discount in the applicable premium for renewal.
7. Applicability
This is a crucial difference to understand. While an individual insurance plan stays applicable as long as you are paying the premium, employer-provided group health policies cease when you are not employed with that organisation. You may have the option to convert it into an individual plan, but the premium to be paid would be higher.
In summary
When it comes to premium, group health plans can really help you save on cost. An individual health policy can give you the freedom and flexibility to choose what you want covered.
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Sikha Kaushik
March 2, 2022 AT 03:41
Does Kuvera group health insurance provide no claim bonus?