What is the Difference Between General Insurance and Health Insurance?

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General insurance is a broad category covering non-life assets like vehicles, homes and travel, with policies typically lasting one year. Whereas health insurance is a specific type of general insurance focusing only on medical expenses, treatment, and hospitalisations. Additionally, general insurance protects you from asset or property loss, and health insurance protects you from financial burden due to ailments. In essence, general insurance covers anything that does not concern itself with the insured’s demise. Most general insurance plans are renewed annually. On the other hand, health insurance, while often paid annually, can sometimes offer longer-term coverage (ranging from 1 to 5 years).


Let’s discuss the types of general insurance to better understand the terms “general insurance” and “health insurance”.


Types of General Insurance



  1. Health Insurance


Health insurance covers the medical expenditures against hospitalisation and treatments for the policyholders. The insured individuals get coverage for pre- and post-hospitalisation, consultation charges, surgeries, medicines, room rent, ICU charges and other benefits. Insured individuals can also take riders such as critical care coverage, maternity benefits, etc.



  1. Travel Insurance


A travel insurance plan is limited to a specific trip that covers unexpected losses or expenses that may occur while travelling. These policies are crafted to cover events such as unforeseen circumstances, stolen or lost luggage, trip cancellations or flight delays/ cancellations. Travel insurance plans come in multiple layers of coverage, aiming to cover a wide range of travel-related expenses.



  1. Motor Insurance


This type of insurance covers damages or loss caused to vehicles including cars, trucks, and bikes. There are different types of motor insurance plans. You can get separate motor insurance for commercial vehicles. It covers damages due to accidents, fire, flood, theft and riots. As per the Motor Vehicles Act, each and every vehicle owner is authorised to have third party insurance to drive the vehicle legally on roads.



  1. Home Insurance


This category of insurance policies damages caused to the policyholder’s home and the contents in it. There are multiple types of home insurance policies available in the market including building insurance and contents insurance. Further, building insurance covers damages to the infrastructure of the home, whereas, contents policies committed to cover damages to personal assets inside the home. You receive coverage for losses or damages due to flood, fire, theft and any natural disasters.


Therefore, general insurance is necessary for protecting your assets and liabilities, whereas health insurance is essential for protecting your savings against unexpected medical emergencies. You can have multiple general health insurance but often require only one comprehensive health plan.