This post is the continuation of the previous post regarding Travel Health Insurance.
To make how health insurance works, I google’d to find this good link from eHealthInsurance
It will explain the concepts of deductible, co-payment, co-insurance, out of pocket maximum. There are different types of health insurance based on the above explained terms. In India, health insurance is not a big concept, since medical expenses are cheap when compared to U.S. if you wonder how costly it can be, let me give my real life experience.
Student Health Insurance Coverage – Example
Like every other student, I signed up for the mandatory student health insurance coverage offered by that university will provide. Some universities its optional. They accept the health insurance provided by outside companies. Since, its new concept and never paid attention to the details when all is well. I have been to University hospital ( within campus ), they will ask for ID card and get the treatment for free and we have to pay for the medicines.
I had an health problem and its was serious one. So, I started looking at the details. Spoke to few seniors to understand the terms ( deductible, co-payment, co-insurance, out of pocket maximum) and few more terms like network, in-patient stay, …
I created a new account with the medical insurance website and searched to find the doctor who will treat my condition. Can we go to any doctor we want? Yes, you can, but if that doctor doesn’t come under the network with your health insurance company, you will have to pay more.
Health insurance companies will negotiate deal with doctors for providing treatments to their patients ( like you and me. Say $100 for general checkup which is negotiated rate) for lesser cost.
If we go doctor in different network ( he might charge $150 for general checkup) so my insurance company will pay only $100. We have to pay the rest ($50).
I found the doctor in my network and he treated my condition. In my plan deductible was $500 and out of pocket maximum was around $5,000. Total cost of surgery was around $24,000.
Insurance company will pay 80% of 24,000 and rest I have to pay. Which is around $4,500.
Now, you will have an idea of how much health insurance will help you. But, I still ended up paying the rest.
I don’t to do a lengthy post. But, if still haven’t answered the question, to take insurance offered by companies in India or not? I couldn’t get few details from their websites about the student travel and medical plan they offer. I have emailed them to clarify few things. Will let you know the advantages and dis-advantages.
I missed few other terms like policy, coverage, insurance premium. You should find all the details from Google.
Till then happy packing – you can use list of items to pack to US within 23 Kgs suitcase.
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