Is there any difference in individual health insurance and employer provided health insurance?
Employer provided health insurance policies are group insurance policies. Though there are benefits such as coverage of pre-existing diseases, there are many disadvantages as well.
- The cover provided will mostly be inadequate in case of long time hospitalization.
- You might be under-insured or uninsured.
- It is available only as long as you are employed.
- Reduced benefits over the long term due to companies’ cost-cutting mode and hike in group health insurance premiums.
- It is a yearly contract and so the terms of the contracts are prone to change year after year.
The need for own individual health insurance at an early age:
- As you age the complexity in health condition increases and so it becomes difficult to buy any health insurance and it is also expensive.
- Premiums cannot be hiked exponentially without any valid reason.
- Companies provide bonus for no-claims.
- It comes in handy if the employer provided insurance limit gets exhausted or when you are in the midst of switching jobs.
- You can buy two or three insurance policies but make a claim through a single policy and still enjoy tax benefit under section 80D on all the policies.