How to Save Money on Healthcare Costs?

With the growing inflation, healthcare expenses are also soaring high. However, it does not mean that you have to compromise on your expenditure at the risk of your and your near and dear ones’ health. You should know the ways in which you can save your out-of-pocket expenses while treating chronic to short-term illnesses.

Ways to Reduce Household Healthcare Expenditure

Here are some of the ways that can help you get a lower invoice amount on medical expenses:

• Know About the Free Medical Facilities

You can get some medical care facilities from your health insurance provider or government free of cost. 

Most insurers let their customers leverage free health care check-ups once or twice every year. This can help you know if you are suffering from or likely to develop any diseases. Besides, the government provides preventive medication, vaccination and treatment facilities for certain diseases at no cost. Some of these are medication for HIV patients, vaccination for newborn babies, eye tests, etc.

• Save Invoice Bills on Medicines

You can save much on your medicine bills by following the ways mentioned below:

1. Request your healthcare expert to provide generic medicines instead of branded ones. The chemical compositions of these are the same as those of branded ones. Still, generic medicines are less expensive.
2. You can get similar medicines from different brands at varied prices. This is why you need to tell your doctors to prescribe medicines that come at a lower cost.
3. You can also choose your medicines from online marketplaces to enjoy discounts.

In this respect, you must also take your medicines on time as your doctor instructs. Otherwise, your health condition may deteriorate further, leading you to spend more on treatment. 

• Get Routine Healthcare Check-Ups

A routine health screening can help you detect any disease at an early stage, when it is still possible to be cured easily. If it is not a curable disease, you can control the symptoms by diagnosing them early. As a result, you can avoid the necessity of making bigger expenses to cure a disease by stopping it from being spread or developed.

• Check the Viability of Out-patient Care

In-patient treatment comes with various additional expenses. These include accommodation, food, etc., for both the patients and their attendants. To reduce these out-of-pocket expenses, you need to ask your experts if you can opt for a domiciliary treatment facility. In this regard, you can also go for treatment from out-patient clinics that charge relatively lower than hospitals. This way, you can reduce your hassles and costs to a large extent.

• Maintain Healthy Practices

You can avoid the propensity to be affected by illnesses by maintaining healthy habits like regular exercise. Additionally, you need to quit smoking and drinking and maintain a proper diet including healthy foods, vegetables, fruits, etc. All these will strengthen your immunity so that it can fight against diseases.

In this regard, you can also buy a health insurance policy to safeguard your hard-earned savings from costly medical treatments. By purchasing this policy, you will get coverage from your insurer to bear unforeseen treatment-related expenses. Besides this, you can also enjoy several other benefits by covering yourself and your near ones with health insurance plans.

Features and Benefits of a Health Insurance Policy

Here are all the benefits you can get from a health insurance policy:

• Coverage for Treatment-Related Expenses

The health insurance policy gives you coverage against hospitalisation expenses. These include boarding/nursing/ICU charges, doctor’s visiting fees, cost of medicines, diagnosis, etc. 

In addition, you also get pre/post-hospitalisation benefits. It helps you recover the costs incurred due to treatment before and after hospitalisation. 

• Cashless Hospitalisation

The cashless hospitalisation benefit lets you opt for treatment facilities from hospitals without paying any bills upfront. Instead, the insurer directly settles the bills on your behalf. For this, you just need to visit a network hospital of your insurance company. It will help you avoid the hassles of raising funds to start the emergency treatment process.

• Financial Back-Up against Soaring Medical Expenses

You can stay stress-free about medical expenses by being covered under this policy. It gives you financial immunity from the expenses incurred during in-patient and out-patient treatments, medications, etc.

• Tax Deductions

Under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, you are also eligible to reduce your taxable income by purchasing a health insurance policy. 

People below the age group of 60 can get a tax deduction for up to Rs. 25,000. On the other hand, people over the age of 60 can get a tax deduction for up to Rs. 50,000.

In conclusion, while making financial plans, you cannot avoid healthcare expenses. Considering the soaring price of medical facilities, you may face a dilemma regarding how much funds you will have to keep aside. By knowing how to reduce healthcare expenditure, you can curtail the risk of depleting your finances. In addition, you can also opt for coinsurance along with your health insurance plan. It is the amount that you pay towards a medical treatment after paying the out-of-pocket deductible cost.