Health Insurance Premium
A health insurance premium is the payment that you make as the cost of buying a health insurance policy and can be paid on the monthly basis or annual basis. If you opt to pay it as a lump sum for a year, there is a discount offered by most companies for its policy.
The premiums applicable to different health insurance policies are assessed on the basis of a number of factors such as the place where you live, your age, health condition, various health related habits and the type of plan that you want to take. The extra options that you want to be included in your policy could raise your premium amount quite substantially. The insurance company looks at the rate of medical services available in your area for different kinds of health care and then fixes the premium rates accordingly. If you are young, you are likely to pay a lower premium rate in comparison to middle age group or old people. Further, the company gives higher premium quotes for overweight, smokers and alcoholic people as there are chance of expensive doctor’s bill from this group of beneficiaries. People who have chronic health problems, such as blood pressure or diabetes may have to pay a higher premium in comparison to those who have never been diagnosed with those health conditions.
If you include certain extra options in you policy, then the premium amount will go up with each such addition. For instance, you may include dental care, physiotherapy, eye therapy in your health cover and these additions will increase your premium for the policy. When you are making comparison between different policies, you will have to carefully look at the health cover provided by different policies as even a single extra option in a particular policy increases the premium amount.