HOW LONG AFTER GETTING PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE CAN YOU USE IT?

Uncertainties are a part of life. Therefore to keep yourself well and prepared for unforeseen medical challenges, you need to invest in a health insurance plan for yourself and your family. In these days of the pandemic, medical costs can seriously hit your financial health. Therefore investing in medical policies can be your best investment to safeguard your future. Medical insurance plans help you in providing financial protection by paying your medical bills. Please note that buying an insurance policy does not mean the insurance provider will start paying your medical bills from the initial day of purchase of the policy. It means that you need to wait for some more days to get the payment of claims. Different insurance policies have different waiting times and payments. The term of the waiting period is different for every company even in the case when you want to avail the benefit during the waiting period.

What is the waiting period?

In health care policies, waiting time represents the time required to claim the medical expenses under the health care policy. It is a time in which a specific health illness is not covered and the insured person needs to wait for a certain time to pass or need to make some renewals before starting to get the benefits of the plan. Insurance companies can deny the claims if they fall under the waiting period, once the waiting period gets completed, you are free to register claims.

Understanding about different waiting periods:

1) Disease-related waiting period: There are certain diseases like hernia, tumor, ENT disorder, osteoporosis, that have a specific waiting period of one year or two years. The waiting period is mentioned in the policy papers before starting the policy. Also, the elements that qualify for the waiting period may differ from person to person. A disease-specific health plan may cover certain diseases like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, strokes, etc.

2) Maternity waiting period: Few health care companies provide maternity periods of 9 months and 36 months. Most maternity plans have a 2 years waiting period. So to take the maternity benefits it is best to purchase the policy early. Some insurance companies offer fewer waiting periods but charge extra premiums. Maternity benefits can not be claimed within the waiting period window.

What is the role of the waiting period in health insurance policy?

In many cases, customers buy an insurance policy to enjoy the benefits of healthcare reimbursements and claims. To avoid any health energy or other medical costs, the concept of a waiting period was suggested. Imagine a case where a person is diagnosed with the disease, the doctor prescribed an expensive surgery that could be a big burden on the patients. At that time, a person looks to buy health insurance policies without telling the insurance providers about the disease. Therefore to avoid such unethical practices, the concept of a waiting period was started.

What to know more about the waiting period?

If any disease is detected during the policy period, then it will be covered and will not be covered under a part of the policy’s existing waiting period. However, if any existing medical conditions are not told by the insured person at the time of availing of the policy then the claim will not be settled. With it, there is a common cooling period of 1 month for accident hospitalization. Thus, you can not immediately ask for the claim settlement or reimbursement.

With this, we hope that concept of the waiting period is clearly understood by you. The best way to avoid long waiting periods is to buy a health care policy as early as possible. At a young age, there are fewer chances of susceptibility to disease, hence there are fewer chances of pre-existing disease.