Group Health Insurance Plan – Enough or Not

The health insurance market offers numerous health plan options to the individuals. While every health insurance plan is designed to offer the best possible health care assistance as and when required, it gets difficult for people to pick the most suitable plan for them. Many people willingly opt for an individual health plan, while others get enrolled for a health insurance cover under an employee group health insurance facility. Now, people in the latter category are often found wondering if they need to buy a separate health plan or not. For such individuals it is important that they understand their health plan requirements well and thoroughly understand the difference between individual health insurance plan and group mediclaim policy.

Meanwhile, an individual health insurance policy is bought by an individual for self or family while under a group health insurance plan, an individual gets the health coverage from their employer. However, when a company offers health insurance under a group plan, it is not necessary that it will extend the health cover to the dependents/family of the employee. Some group plans offer health coverage for family members as well while some do not. Also those who do not straight away offer coverage for family members, they tend to have the provision to pay extra premium to get health cover for their respective family members too.

Meanwhile, an individual medical insurance policy is bought by an individual for self or family while under a group health insurance plan, an individual gets the health coverage from their employer. In the present day scenario, most individuals work in private organisations that offer group health coverage to their employees under the Insurance Regulatory and development authority of India (IRDA) mandate. However, they must understand that their group health insurance plan will serve as a backup to their individual health cover. 

Yet the problem with people is that they remain perplexed while deciding if they should rely on their group insurance or should they buy an individual health plan.

Individual Health Insurance Plan vs. Group Health Insurance Plan

·         Medical Check-up: Buying individual health cover means you need to undergo certain medical tests whereas under a group health insurance plan this is not a pre-requisite.

·         Waiting Period: The rule of waiting period applies under the individual health insurance plan- for pre-existing medical conditions as well as maternity benefits. On the other hand, under the group health plan, no such waiting period applies or the policyholder gets a waiver on the waiting period.

·         Premium Amount: The premium amount of an individual plan is much higher as compared to the group health plan. It is also true that a group health insurance may be a cost-effective alternative to the individual health plan. This however, cannot be said true in a scenario wherein the individual has a family that in turn, will require one to buy adequate health coverage.

Be it any plan- group or individual, their prime motives remain the same i.e. to offer health coverage to the policyholder. 

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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