How Can You Choose The Best Health Insurance Plan In India Through Simple Steps?

With changing times, awareness about the significance of investing in a Health Insurance Policy is steadily rising among young Indians. Health Insurance is essential, especially keeping in mind the sky-rocketing cost of modern medical treatments and the growing incidence of illness amongst the younger populace.

Even though we take good health for granted, there is no denying the fact that medical emergencies are an unavoidable part of life. Hence, it would be prudent to equip oneself financially to deal with any probable exigencies. Therefore, it’s high time that the Millenials cease considering Medical Insurance only as a tax-saving tool instead of treating it as a wise investment. Unfortunately, however, Health Insurance in India is still neglected and needs catching up.

There are varied types of Health plans available in India. Individual plans, Family floaters, and Senior citizen health insurance.

Advantages of buying a Health Insurance Plan

• Access quality medical treatment: A financial corpus gives one the liberty of focussing solely on the treatment rather than the expenses involved.
• Tackle Medical Inflation: A Health Insurance policy can help you pay your medical bills, including pre and post-hospitalization costs.
• Safe-guards your savings: It helps you protect your hard-earned savings by covering all the costs incurred.
• Treatment of lifestyle diseases: Medical Insurance provides long-term treatment of lifestyle diseases on an upward spiral.
• Avail cashless hospitalization: It allows cashless hospitalization at any of the network hospitals of your insurance provider.
• Tax Benefits: There are tax savings on the premiums paid under section 80D of the Income-tax Act.

Steps to decide the most suitable Health Insurance policy

A Health Insurance policy needs to be selected depending upon your individual needs and whether you are single or are married, and whether aging parents are part of the family or not.

• Choose a Health Plan with the right coverage: An insurance plan which provides a wide range of benefits, including pre and post-hospitalization, daycare expenses, transportation by ambulance, etc., should be considered. If it’s a family floater, check whether it meets the requirements of each member.
• Select plans with lifetime renewability: Health Plans which offer lifetime renewability are the safest bet.
• Family floaters over individual plans: If you have a family to protect, a Family Health Plan will provide coverage to all members at a reasonable premium.
• Affordability: Health Insurance should be budget-friendly as well. Buy a reasonably priced plan with affordable premiums. With the passage of time, one can increase the cover and review the plan.
• Select a provider with a vast network of hospital coverage: Check whether your preferred network of hospitals and doctors are a part of their network of hospitals so that you can claim swift, convenient, cashless settlements.
• Compare quotes online: Get an estimated premium for your policy online, collect the best quotes and compare them to select the policy best suited to your needs.
• Go for providers with a High Claim Settlement ratio: One must select an Insurer with a high claim settlement ratio. The Claim settlement ratio is the number of claims settled by the Insurance provider over the total received claims.
• Sum insured: The sum insured will depend on the type of plan and the city of residence of policyholders. For example, if a person resides in tier -1 cities with a higher cost of living, then one should opt for a higher sum insured as compared to those living in Tier -2 cities with relatively lower costs.
• Sub-limit: A sub-limit is a monetary cap that your Insurance Company places on your Medical Insurance claim for specific covers. They are usually expressed as a fixed value for a specific disease or treatment but can also be included as a percentage of the total sum insured. The Insurance Company can limit its liability under specific covers by including sub-limits. Ideally, one should steer clear of the sub-limit clause. Without sub-limits, you can claim the total sum insured.
• Co-payment: In the case of co-payment, the Insurance Company pays a part of the claim, and the policyholder bears the other part of the claim. That is, in case of hospitalization, the Company pays a part of the bill, and the remaining is met by the Insured. The percentage is pre-determined for health Plans and is pre-defined in Policy Document. The safest bet is to select a health policy without co-payment so that you do not have to part with your hard-earned money at the time of claim settlement.
• No Claim Bonus: No Claim Bonus or NCB in Health Insurance is bonus money added in the sum insured for every claim-free year. It is like a reward the Insured receives upon making no claims on the Insurer. No claim bonus is beneficial as the cost of medical services rises significantly, and the bonus adds up to the final amount insured. There are two types of NCB Cumulative Bonus and Discount on Premium.

Conclusion

With so many players in the market, it requires careful study and comparison of various policies, from the point of view of individual requirements as well. However, investing in a reliable Health Insurance Policy can prove to be a boon not only for yourself but for your loved ones as well. Moreover, the financial backup will prove instrumental in successfully fighting all the Medical emergencies.