Does a Health Insurance Plan Cover Kidney Stones In India?
Kidney stones are prevalent, especially in men. It's formed by the hard deposits of minerals that can cause blood in urine, and it's excruciating when the stone passes through the urethra. Kidney stones are painful but are curable with timely medication. Occasionally when you can not bear the pain caused by a kidney stone, you have to consult with a doctor and use your critical illness insurance policy to cover the charges.
Minute order stones pass out of the body on their own, but if the size of the kidney stone increases and becomes very painful, the person has to consult a specialist doctor. Since medical charges can burn a hole in your pocket, there are health insurance plans you can buy to get financial aid.
Still, a stone might not show symptoms when it starts flowing around in the affected kidney area. When the stone moves into the urethra, a tube connecting the kidney and bladder, you get to feel pain in several places you can consider stone symptoms. And they're as below.
- Pain in the side or back
- Pain in the lower abdomen region
- Vomiting and nausea
- Irregular pain in the stomach
- Burning sensation while urinating
- Fever
- Change of urine colour to pink, red, or brown
- Pain below the ribs
- Frequent urination
You should visit a doctor immediately if you feel any of the symptoms below and appear for certain tests for the same.
How are Kidney Stones Diagnosed?
When you suffer from the above-mentioned painful scenarios and visit the doctor, he will ask you to undergo a urine test. Once the test is done and reports are out, it can reveal if the order consists of the mineral that can form a kidney stone.
You can get a blood test and a urine test to help the doctor decide the kind of stone you might have in your kidney. The blood test ascertains if you have a high position of minerals in the blood that can form a kidney stone. If you have a critical diagnosis insurance policy also, you can use it.
You can get the test done to locate the stone in your kidney. The tests can also show whether kidney stones can be a blockage in the urinary tract or not. After some tests are done, the doctor will begin the treatment.
Kidney Stone Treatment in India
The process of kidney stones depends on their stone size, the mineral they are made of, and if the urinary tract has been blocked or not. To get a clear picture of the condition, the doctor will ask you to go through medical tests like blood tests, CT scans, urine tests, and X-rays.
Still, the doctor will also prescribe some medicine and ask you to have plenty of water and juice to pass it through urine if a small kidney stone is detected. If the stone size is large, it'll also bear some additional treatment or procedure.
On average, the cost of stone removal surgery in India ranges from INR 30,000 to INR 90,000. Your critical insurance policy can give you financial aid for the same.
How Does a Critical Illness Insurance Policy Help You?
Since your primary health insurance plan might not give you cover for a particular illness or disease, look to buy critical illness health insurance plan individually to get financial aid for an acute condition from which you might suffer.
You can ask your policy insurer to give you information related about critical illness cover and the diseases it covers. Also, based on your demand, you can buy and include the plan in your subsisting health plan. It'll increase the premium rate, but you'll save a lot in a medical emergency.
Life changes with time, and life becomes stressful day by day. In this stressful life, buying a health plan can become a saviour for the savings you must have earned with your hard work.
Read more - Homework to Do Before Choosing the Best Critical Illness Insurance Plan
How Will the Critical Illness Insurance Policy Work?
The policy will ensure disbursal of a lump sum amount upon the diagnosis of kidney stones for the first time. No matter the expenses you incur on the treatment, you will get a fixed lump sum. You also need to survive for a specified period after the diagnosis of the illness, typically a month or two.
But, Shall I Buy a Critical Illness Rider Instead of a Dedicated Critical Illness Plan?
The payout and survival period clause remains much the same in a critical illness rider, available on a comprehensive health insurance plan that covers maximum conditions. However, the sum insured amount under this rider may be much lower compared to a dedicated critical illness policy. So, check the sum insured amount of a critical illness plan and a critical illness rider before deciding. Also, consider the premium payable in both scenarios. A proper cost-benefit analysis will draw you to the best option.
To Sum Up
People in India generally depend on outside food instead of homemade food to maintain their work and life balance. The unhealthy food and minerals inside the body can cause several health-related issues such as kidney stones. Be it any medical circumstance, the inflation in the medical sector is high, so it is essential to cover yourself and your family with a health insurance plan.
Also, as per the insurance industry experts, copping a critical health insurance coverage online can be more cost-effective than buying the policy offline. You can change your insurance policy coverage, calculate premium rates and learn about it comprehensively. It can also exclude the insurance agent’s charge because you're buying the policy online from the comfort of your home.
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Laser lithotripsy is a process to treat kidney stones. It uses a laser to break kidney stones into atomic pieces. For several hours after the process, you may feel burning when urinating.
CT scans of the kidneys help examine one or both of the kidneys to determine conditions similar to tumours or other lesions, obstructive conditions, such as congenital anomalies, kidney stones, accumulation of fluid around the kidneys, polycystic kidney disease, and the location of abscesses.
The average cost for kidney stone treatment in India is approximately INR 30,000-1 lakh. The exact cost may differ based on the procedure, the hospital, and other factors.
Yes, you can get coverage for all medical charges incurred due to kidney stone treatment. Though this would depend on many other factors, it mostly does reimburse you for your expenses.
If you have had a kidney stone before buying a health insurance policy, you may need to contend with a waiting period of up to two to four years. But do check the policy brochure for the exact waiting period, the time during which the coverage won’t be available.