Health Insurance to tackle lifestyle diseases in India

Different kinds of lifestyles bring different kinds of outcomes, which can be either bad or good. In today’s strenuous times, a lot of individuals are subject to many lifestyle related issues like hypertension, respiratory problems, diabetes, body aches, etc. One of the few ways to deal with this is to make some necessary changes to your lifestyle. But alongside that, you should also invest in a health insurance policy that can help you deal with certain lifestyle diseases that are more likely to start to occur in your late middle age.

What are lifestyle diseases?

As the name suggests, lifestyle diseases are illnesses that are caused by the kind of lifestyle involving people’s daily habits and routines. This can be inclusive of lack of sleep, constant exposure to digital screens, incessant hours of sitting, lack of a wholesome diet, consumption of drugs, alcohol, or any other kind of intoxicant, etc. It also includes mental illnesses caused by an unhealthy environment.

These unhealthy habits can cause lifestyle diseases that may be short-term or prolonged. It is hard to get rid of such habits because they become so internalized in your daily routine. In fact, for some individuals, their personal or professional lifestyle demands such lifestyle conditions that may cause prolonged diseases. In such cases, you can get health insurance to tackle your lifestyle diseases.

Are lifestyle diseases covered by health insurance?

Lifestyle diseases are very much covered by health insurance companies. However, it may happened that not all of them will be covered by your insurer. To find out what lifestyle diseases are covered by your insurance company, you can buy health insurance online and compare your potential choices to see which fits your needs better.

Here are a few things to note before you buy health insurance to tackle lifestyle diseases:

1. Buy your health insurance early

Lifestyle diseases are likely to affect you in your middle or older stages of life. As a result, it is best to purchase your health insurance plan as soon as you are financially stable enough to do so. Health insurance provides protection against many other kinds of illnesses other than lifestyle diseases. Hence, if you face anything else than that, you will be secure if you have a health insurance policy.

2. Get critical illness cover

Lifestyle diseases can turn into critical illnesses over time. To be prepared for that, you should get a critical illness cover that offers you extra financial benefits in case you run out of your coverage amount in the middle of your treatment.

3. Buy a floater plan

Lifestyle diseases can occur to you or anyone in your family. Hence, it is ideal to get a floater health insurance plan under which you can cover your family members along with yourself. With a floater plan, you can cover your spouse, children, and parents against lifestyle diseases.

4. Get add-on benefits

There are some aspects of lifestyle diseases that might not be covered by your comprehensive health insurance plan. But you can buy add-on benefits to include different services in your basic health insurance plan.

5. Waiting period

Every basic health insurance comes with a waiting period. In the case of lifestyle diseases, you might have a relatively long waiting period, which can be around 2 to 4 years. Lifestyle diseases cause pre-existing illnesses, which usually have a waiting period of years. You can cut it short by paying extra premiums. However, this feature differs from one insurer to another.

6. Increased health insurance premiums

There is a high chance that you will be subject to paying high premiums if you have a lifestyle disease at the time of buying your health insurance. This is because policyholders with pre-existing conditions are more likely to file frequent claims. Hence, insurers often charge them higher premium amounts compared to people with no pre-existing conditions.

The lifestyle conditions of people have changed, and health insurance in India has kept up with it. To make the most of it, you must buy a health insurance plan as soon as you can. Apart from leading a healthy lifestyle, this is one of the most essential solutions to the increasing lifestyle healthcare problems.