In today's modern life, everything has become fast paced and technology has become intrinsic to our existence. We can't imagine our lives without computers. The advent of laptops, especially at workplace means longer working hours, with competition in every sphere is leading to a lot of stress. And watching TV alone or with family has become a favorite past time. All these are making us vulnerable to a host of lifestyle diseases.

The two main culprits are:

Sedentary lifestyle

Long hours of work in front of the computer

With double income nuclear families, kids also are getting addicted to computers and video games, as a result there is a lack of healthy social interaction among families which is so essential for all round emotional development of kids. Women also tend to neglect health while juggling their jobs, kids and the home responsibilities. There are a host of diseases which are much prevalent due to this lifestyle. Diabetes is becoming more common among women as well as children. Also, off late there has been a spurt in psychological illnesses too.

According to a World Health Organization report, 36% of Indians suffer from depression. Recently, a leading newspaper has reported that India's IT sector has become the most depressed, with high number of people seeking help from psychiatrists. The long hours on the computer at work and later at home watching TV, stress along with lack of physical activities make us vulnerable to other lifestyle disease like hypertension, stroke, heart disease, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) due to sitting for long hours, type II diabetes etc. Most of these diseases need long-term management and are not fatal, except for extreme cases. This is where a health insurance policy comes in handy to take care of any medical emergencies that may arise. It basically covers hospitalization and other related expenses for the disease covered under the policy.

Some of the health insurance benefits are:

Most insurers offer cashless facility where the insurance company directly pays for your medical expenses as part of the health insurance benefits.

Also there are âEUR~Family Floater' policies which come at a lower premium than individual policies, giving flexibility on tenures and addition of members to the plan.

Most health insurance policies have a facility of free health check-ups for the well being of the individual if there is no claim made for certain number of years.

These days most policies cover pre-existing diseases, for e.g. hypertension, after 2-3 years of regular premium payment. And even hospitalization is covered.

Some health policies also offer a no claim bonus.

Source: [http://goo.gl/8w7S0]