It is hard to tell when you or your loved ones are going to fall sick. Sickness is a condition and therefore inevitable.
The best way to have yourself covered when sickness strikes is to take a health insurance cover. A medical insurance cover takes care of your hospital bill and cost of treatment whenever you fall sick. Having a medical insurance cover is important since you may be hard up for cash when you fall sick or the cost of treatment may be too high for out of pocket payment. Better still, an insurance cover earns you a tax break.
Before you look for Where To Buy Health Insurance, here’s everything you must know about medical insurance.
Medical insurance companies do not provide medical services
Apart from a few insurance companies which also happened to own a chain of hospitals, medical insurers do not provide direct medical services. They only deal with settling your medical bills, and that’s it.
That said, most insurance companies have a list of medical facilities with which they have a working partnership. You may therefore be limited to only these hospitals and it is important to assess how much liberty an insurance policy offers you in terms of specialized medical attention and quality before settling on one.
Carry out your due diligence
Find out about the reputation of a health insurance provider before signing up with them. Go to review sites, do a simple Google search of the company, and find out from healthcare facilities how reliable they are in terms of payment.
Talk to their existing clientele about the quality of services the medical insurer provides; this is a good way to know first-hand how it is to deal with the insurance provider.
Reach
You want to access affordable and quality healthcare wherever you are. So you should consider the reach of your medical insurance before committing to it. If, for instance, you are a frequent international traveller then it would only be wise to have an insurance cover that can still take care of you even while abroad.
Some medical insurance providers have geographical or regional boundaries beyond which you are on your own should you fall sick. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you rarely travel out of their jurisdiction.
The other important thing to consider before choosing a medical insurance provider is their network of partner hospitals. You want to be able to get the best medical attention while you are sick and keep the premiums to a minimum. Y
Cost
When looking at medical insurance premiums, it is important to not only focus on the cost but also consider the reach and types of services to be offered. An insurance cover may have very low premiums but not cover pre-existing medical conditions, eye and dental problems. Even the level of hospitals you can access may be limited.
Look at what you need vis-à-vis what the insurance provider offers. For the best deals, compare medical insurance covers from various providers before making a decision.
