​Saving is probably among one of the most common behaviors observed in most of the living beings. Talking of human nature; ever since we realise the importance of a materialistic needs, we tend to do some kind of saving. For example, a 5 year old child would maintain his own piggy bank for buying candies and cookies. Similarly, we as adults also try to do some kind of savings for a better future.

However, the rate at which today's cost of living is mounting, merely saving your earnings is not sufficient. Thus, comes the need for investment. Today, individuals are keenly investing their hard earned money on different channels like stock market, SIP, ULIPs, life insurance, health insurance, etc. All these investment tools are of different nature; consequently they offer different benefits. But, something like insurance is mostly considered as the safest zone of investment. Life or non-life insurance, they offer security towards unforeseen incidents. Life insurance promises to offer a pre-decided amount for your old-age or risk coverage for your family in event of your death. On the other hand, a health insurance protects you from falling into financial contingency like situation, in the event of medical emergency. In the event of a medical requirement, a good health insurance provides best possible treatment without letting you feel the burden of the expenses.

Health insurance also known as medical insurance is necessary as the coverage helps us get timely medical care. In the event of hospitalisation, the medical bills can actually dig a deep hole in one's savings or even bring someone under a huge debt. In order to maintain their financial stability, people often tend to compromise on quality of treatment. Medical insurance acts as saviour in such circumstances.

A medical insurance is generally an annual insurance policy, which can be renewed every year. The policy offers two ways of services - Cashless and Reimbursement.

Cashless – Most of the health insurance companies are tied up with many hospitals. Such hospitals are called network hospitals of the respective health insurance company. If you take the services of these network hospitals you can avail cashless services. You would not be required to make any direct bill payments, as your medical insurance pays the permissible claim amount directly to the hospital. To avail the cashless facility all you need to do is at the time of hospitalisation, provide your cashless card to the hospital's billing department. In this case, you would be required to pay for only things not covered in your policy.

Reimbursement – In case of reimbursement, the entire medical expense incurred during hospitalisation is beared by you. Later, on submission of the bills and other documents you will be reimbursed the permissible claim amount by your insurance provider. This practice is generally followed in case of hospitalisation in non-network hospitals.

The right health insurance that suits you and your family the best way, demands some of your precious time to understand yours and your family's needs. It requires you to invest your time doing a comparative study of different policies available in the market, understand their benefits and then make your decision. Such an approach may help you get best policies at affordable rates.

Today, medical insurance is no more considered as luxury, but a necessity. By buying a health insurance policy you not only protect your health but also your savings.