Health insurances are doubling up as attractive tax saving tools. Here’s how

Hospitalisation, health check-ups and expensive medical tests can drain out your savings and one way to immune yourself from such unforeseen expenditure is by getting a health insurance policy.

A good financial advisor would always recommend having health insurance in one’s plan, as an adequate health cover can save you from financial burden in an event of unexpected hospitalisation or serious illness.

Apart from saving you from rainy days, health insurance also comes with tax benefits. The premium paid towards health insurance either for self or for family helps lower your tax burden.

Under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, any premium paid under health insurance policy is counted as a deduction. However, the upper limit depends on the age of person who is insured. For instance, a 60-year-old person can avail maximum deduction of Rs 25,000 per annum. If the insurance is geared towards one’s parents who are above 60, the deduction gets capped off at Rs 30,000.

Moreover, if a taxpayer has taken up health insurance for self and for parents who are over 60 years of age, he/she can avail a maximum tax benefit of Rs 55,000 and if the taxpayer is also over 60 years, the maximum tax benefit sums up to Rs 60,000.

The market is brimming with a plethora of health insurance policies. It has become easier to compare and select policies online as per your needs.

Some companies also offer extra benefits, such as Reliance General Insurance. The Reliance HealthGain Policy is not only a saviour, which will fight off the financial burden arising from expensive treatments, it is also an attractive tax saving tool.

Under this policy, medical insurance plan cost starts from as less as Rs15 per day.​​​​ It has a number of options such as a family floater mediclaim policy, individual health insurance plan​s, cashless health insurance and senior citizen health insurance.

Here are other benefits that come with the Reliance HealthGain Policy

In the backdrop of rising medical costs and lifestyle diseases, apart from a tax-saving tool, health insurance policyshould be viewed as a long term investment. An effective health insurance policy can be a saviour.