Medical emergencies can arise anytime, therefore, it is important to have adequate health insurance for yourself and your family. Health insurance comes in handy allowing you to focus on getting the best medical help without worrying about arranging money during treatment. Most health insurance companies offer cashless insurance which means you don’t have to make any payment to the hospital once your treatment is complete. The two types of health insurance are individual health insurance and group health insurance.

Individual health insurance policy that an individual purchases for himself or his family. Group health insurance is a policy that is purchased by an employer and is offered to eligible employees of the company and their dependents. Both individual health insurance and group health insurance have certain benefits but individual health insurance is more affordable than group health insurance. Group health insurance policies cannot be customized to individual needs. Employers may not offer a viable product for the benefit of their workers. Group health insurance may restrict the coverage to you, your spouse and your children and not cover your parents. In such cases, you are forced to buy individual health insurance policies for your elderly parent which normally turns out to be a costly affair.

In the case of group health insurance, the employer may withdraw the benefits whenever it becomes necessary and might ask you to pay premiums for the health insurance policy. The group insurance policy will not be of any help after your retirement. You will then have to purchase an individual health insurance policy at an extra cost. The advantage of having an individual health insurance policy is you can keep renewing it every year by paying a premium. Group health insurance falls short of your expectations when it comes to customizing health solutions as per your requirements and preferences.

Getting an individual health insurance policy is highly recommended for you and your family as it acts as a shield protecting you and your family during medical emergencies. Individual health insurance spreads the risk over a much larger group and is more affordable than group health insurance because of the size of the risk pool. In the case of group health insurance, a worker’s coverage is dependent on his or her continued employment. Job loss can cause gaps in coverage, therefore, it is highly recommended to buy individual health insurance to stay protected. Another downside of group health insurance is that subsidized insurance plan options are limited to only those provided by the employer. Individual health insurance policies are typically made to fit the individual and in some cases, healthy individuals pay less for an individual health plan as compared to group health insurance. Individual health plans are not tied to employment, policyholders are covered even if they switch jobs, retire early or experience a temporary loss in employment.

In the case of individual health insurance, the individual needs to pay the premium amount monthly, quarterly or yearly and he can choose the tenure of his health insurance policy. Individual health insurance lets you choose the terms of the policy as per your requirement whereas group health insurance will only cover you for basic medical emergencies as predetermined by the company. You do not enjoy the freedom to customize your health insurance policy as per your needs in case of group health insurance. In case of individual health insurance if no claims have been made during the policy tenure then you can enjoy a No Claim Bonus whereas this feature is not available in group health insurance. Getting an individual cover post-retirement is not easy but this problem will not occur if you have an individual health insurance policy.