5 tips you should know while buying a health insurance plan

At young age you don’t think that you require health insurance plans, because you are healthy at that time. However, at old age situations might not be the same. As you grow old, your immunity system becomes weak gradually. To avoid unexpected hospitalization cost it becomes important to buy a health insurance policy. One should buy from healthinsuranceplans.in for themselves and their family. Health insurance is one way to secure you and your family against the unexpected expenses occurring during hospitalization. You need to understand first and then buy the policy. There are various aspects of the health insurance that you need to know in order to choose the best one. An individual needs to compare the policies based on benefits, premium, hospital networks of insurance companies, reviews, no claim bonus, etc. These are main factors to choose the best health insurance plan, however, there is no such comprehensive list. Always bargain for the premium for the insurance companies and always ask for no claim bonus if you are changing your insurer. You need to analyze the plan based on some crucial factors. Here are the five tips that you should know before choosing a health insurance policy.

1. Coverage: As the hospitalization expenses are rising day-by-day, you need to ensure the maximum health coverage and maximum amount coverage for that situation. For instance, hospitalization for 3-4 days can cost you Rs. 50,000-70,000 on an average. So, it is necessary for the middle class people to take best health insurance plans. Also, the risk of getting affected by any disease (except for chronic diseases) at young age is low. As you proceed towards aging, the risk of health issues increases. You should opt for higher coverage amount.
2. Compare premiums: It is important to compare the benefits, premium, maximum returns, etc. from the internet prior to buying any health insurance policies. There are many websites which compare the policies and act as a mediator between individual and insurance companies. This allows you to compare the policies with benefits, premium, and premium over add-on riders.
3. Reviews of the policy: Once a buyer chooses the health insurance plan, it is recommended that he or she should read the reviews of the policy. It is very hard to locate the person who already bought the insurance earlier, but now it will be easy through internet. There are portals where people write their reviews on the health insurance policies. So one should read the reviews before buying the policy.
4. Exclusions: There are list of diseases which are excluded in the health insurance policy, for example, HIV/AIDS, Dental related problems, eye related problems, STD, etc. One should buy the best health insurance plan with the less number of exclusions. While applying for insurance policy, an individual declares the pre-existing disease/ illness to the insurance company. Some insurance companies may choose not to cover the pre-existing illness, however, there are companies cover these pre-existing illness but after a waiting period of 2-4 years. So, individuals should consider those mediclaim policies which should have lower waiting period to cover these illnesses.
5. Add-on riders: Insurance companies offer the add-on riders with the main health insurance policies. For instance, critical illness cover, accidental coverage or other life threatening diseases. Even if the probability of occurrence of the same is low, it is necessary to cover these illnesses as the hospitalization cost for the same is very high. These add-on riders come with some additional premiums which are optional for the buyer, but recommended to avoid unexpected expenses.

Type of Insurance

There are three types of insurances – Individual, in which hospitalisation expenses are covered for an individual for specified amount or sum assured limit, Family floater, where the sum assured floats among the family members and a person doesn’t have to buy individual plan for everyone, hence affording higher sum assured with lower insurance policy premium, and Unit Linked, which combines investment plan and health insurance, where the person gets the health insurance benefits as well as assured amount at the end of the tenure.

Apart from these five major tips you should also follow some essential points while buying a health insurance plan. A higher claim settlement ratio involves the number of claims settled over number of claims received by the insurance company. An individual should always opt for the policy from an insurer which has higher claim settlement ratio, thus ensuring that the insurance company will not reject the claim until they have a valid issue. However, an individual should be careful while filing the claim. It is necessary that they should provide all the necessary documents to support the claim.

According to sub limit plan, there are several health insurance policies that come with medical expenses bifurcated on daily basis. For example, there is an upper cap on the room rent per day, food expense coverage and ambulance coverage. To maximize the benefits, one should look for the maximum sub limit benefits. Also, the insurance companies have tie ups with many hospitals for cashless facility during hospitalization. However, if your hospital is not associated with the insurer, they will not provide you with this benefit. In such case, you need to pay the bills initially when it is required and claim the expenses later with the insurance companies by providing all the proofs and supporting documents. But it will be more beneficial if an individual can avail cashless benefits and avoid the hassle of claim from the insurer afterwards.

Conclusion

At young age the health insurance may not be required, however, at old age the same is required due to higher probability of getting affected by diseases during old age. Due to this the premium is lower at young age and higher at old age, which will renew till 75-80 years of age without any change in premium.

Prateek is a seasoned independent writer. His explanatory and creative writing style helps understand the subject matter easily and offers tips, tricks and expert suggestions for Star Health Insurance polices..