What Is Health Insurance?
Health insurance is a way of offering partial or complete reimbursement for medical expenses. The policy can be issued to one person, such as an individual health plan, or it can cover multiple people. Group Health Insurance Policies are generally purchased by employers on behalf of their employees. A Group Health Insurance Policy offers advantages for both the employer and employee.
How Does Group Health Insurance Work?
A Group Health Insurance Policy is usually purchased by an employer on behalf of the employees. A Group Health Insurance Policy insures a whole group of company employees together for their health insurance requirements. Additionally, a Group Health Insurance Policy can be extended to cover family members (Spouse and Parents) as well as dependent children by paying an additional premium.
Benefits of Group Health Insurance Policies
Group Health Insurance Policies is a win-win for employees as well as employers. Some of the benefits of group health insurance plans for both, employers and employees are listed below:
Advantages of Group Health Insurance Plans for Employers
1. A well-motivated workforce is crucial for an organisation’s success
One of the keys to an organisation’s success is a well-motivated workforce. Employees aware that their medical needs are taken care of with a comprehensive health insurance policy will have mental peace and satisfaction. A well-motivated and a happy workforce has better productivity and thus contributes to an organisation’s success.
2. Group Health Insurance are cheaper than Individual Health Insurance Policies
One of the biggest advantages of Group Health Insurance Policies is cost savings as compared to individual health insurance policies as the premiums for group health insurance plans are cheaper than individual health plans with similar benefits. The reason for lower premiums is that the risk is spread across a larger pool of insured individuals.
3. Tax Savings for Employers
Apart from employees who can avail health insurance at affordable rates, employers can claim tax- deduction towards premiums paid for the group health insurance plans. Thus, premiums paid towards group health insurance policies can result in big tax savings for employers. This is a big advantage from an employer’s perspective and makes a Group Health Insurance Policy a mutual win-win for both parties involved.
4. Group Health Insurance Plans can be customised
Another big advantage of Group health Insurance Plans for employers is that the features of a Group Health Insurance Policy can be customised. Employers are free to select the Sum Insured, Room Rent Capping in a GMC Policy and Co-Payment Clause in a Group Mediclaim Policy, and other benefits like Maternity Benefits etc.
Advantages of Group Health Insurance Plans for Employers
1. No Waiting Period for Pre-Existing Diseases
The biggest advantage of Group Health Insurance Policy for Employees is that the waiting period can be waived off for Pre-Existing diseases in group health insurance plans while individual or family floater health insurance plans will have waiting period of 3-4 years for Pre-Existing Diseases.
2. Easier Claim Settlement Process
The claim settlement process in Group Health Insurance Plans is much simpler as all you need to do is connect with the employer with all the relevant documents whereas in individual health insurance plans, the insured person will have to run behind the insurance companies or TPA to get their claims settled.
3. Maternity Coverage without waiting periods
Most individual or family floater health insurance plans provide maternity benefit only after a waiting period of 2-3 years. However, Maternity Benefit can be provided without any waiting periods under a Group Health Insurance Policy. This is one of the biggest benefits to female employees or the spouse of male employees under a Group Health Insurance Policy.
4. No Need for Medical Check-up
Individual Health Insurance Policies require all people over 50 years of age to undergo a medical check-up before they can avail a health insurance policy. However, there are no such restriction of a compulsory medical check-up under Group Health Insurance Policies.
5. Peace of Mind for the Employee
Finally, employees covered under a Group Health Insurance Policy can rest assured that their medical expenses will be taken care of in case of a medical emergency. This is really important since medical expenses are skyrocketing today and having a comprehensive health insurance cover is of paramount importance today.