Health insurance is a type of insurance coverage that covers the cost of an insured individual's medical and surgical expenses.

Insurers use the term "provider" to describe a clinic, hospital, doctor, laboratory, healthcare practitioner, or pharmacy that treats an individual. The "insured" is the owner of the health insurance policy or the person with the health insurance coverage.

Depending on the type of health insurance coverage, either the insured pays costs out of pocket and receives reimbursement, or the insurer makes payments directly to the provider. In countries without universal healthcare coverage, such as the United States, health insurance is commonly included in employer benefit packages.

In the U.S., the number of people with insurance decreased from 44 million in 2013 to fewer than 28 million in 2016, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The researchers put this down to recent changes in legislation.

A Commonwealth Fund 2011 report informed that one-fourth of all U.S. citizens of working age experienced a gap in health insurance coverage. Many people in the survey lost their health insurance when they either became unemployed or changed jobs.

The level of treatment in emergency departments varies significantly depending on what type of health insurance a person has.

Salient Features of Health insurance:

Pre and Post Hospitalization: This feature covers pre and post hospitalisation charges for a month or 60 days and the person is reimbursed after submitting bills and other expense related documents incurred during the period of hospitalisation.

Cashless treatment : This feature allows the benefit to get admitted to any listed hospital as per the list of hospitals of the insurance provider without paying anything for treatment. This saves the relatives and friends of the person who has been admitted with stress of arranging money in case of emergency .

Plans:

Individual Health Insurance Plans : This policy covers takes care of the expenses incurred by an individual in case of hospitalisation and is designed to cover various illnesses with cashless hospitalization and pre and post hospitalisation expenses. There are various riders or top up plans also available along with these plans to individuals which they can opt for.

Surgery & Critical Illness Policy – This plan takes care of the life threatening diseases like Cancer, heart attack, Brain tumours and kidney failures. This plan can be taken as a stand alone policy or can be added as a top up to the existing policy. The premium paid by the policy holder is high in such a plan for the expenses incurred in treatment of the diseases is on the higher side.

Pre-Existing Disease Cover – This policy covers pre existing diseases a person suffers before buying the policy. The diseases can be life style diseases also. The various ailments which a person suffers can be diabetes, hypertension, kidney failure, cancer etc. before the policy comes into effect.

Family Floater Mediclaim: This policy caters to the family members of the policy holder. People who worry about their families can opt for these plans for it covers all family members against diseases under a single cover. The benefit of this cover is that a stipulated sum is insured for the entire family members that can be availed either by an individual member or as a sum total for treatment of one person.

Senior Citizen Health Plan: This plans takes care of people who have reached old age and their medical expenses can be take care of via such plans. As per the rule, every health insurance company should offer cover to individuals till 65 years of age.