7 Tips to Choose the Best Health Insurance in India

Everyone wants to buy a health insurance plan that can provide maximum coverage to them and their loved ones in their time of need. However, with the presence of different health insurance plans, it might get confusing to pick the right option for yourself. 

With the availability of a lot of health insurance plans going through different policy types, their features, inclusions, and limitations can seem to be an overwhelming task. 

And to avoid time constraints or hassle searching, a lot of people may end up buying a health policy without having the knowledge if it would be adequate for them or not. 

Following are 7 useful tips that can help you choose the best health insurance plan for your family. 

Tips to choose the best health insurance plan 

Look for the right coverage

It is always suggested to choose a health plan which will secure you against a wide range of medical problems and provides you with better benefits including pre and post-hospitalization, daycare expenses, transportation, illnesses that you may be at risk of due to the medical history of your family, etc. 

If you are planning to buy health insurance for your family, you should check whether that policy meets all the needs of each member of your family. 

So before purchasing a health insurance plan, consider your requirements, compare different plans on benefits and costs, and apply a little due diligence to choose a plan which will cater to all your needs.

High claim settlement ratio

The claim settlement ratio refers to the number of claims which is settled by the insurance-providing company over the total received claims. While purchasing a health insurance plan, you should always choose an insurer that has a high claim settlement ratio. 

You should consider this tip as the most important tip to maximize your benefits while you are purchasing a health insurance plan. 

Buying a health insurance plan is an investment that you are making to safeguard yourself from the financial burden of high healthcare costs in the future and to make sure you make the most of it.

Check the Waiting Period Clause

Usually, different health insurance policies cover any pre-existing diseases, maternity expenses, and certain specific treatments like hernia, varicose veins, etc. after a specified waiting period, which is often 2 to 4 years, that may vary from one plan to another. For example, maternity expenses are usually covered after a period of 2 to 4 years from the date of policy purchase. 

So make sure that you are checking the time duration properly after which the pre-existing diseases will be covered in your family health plan. Thus choose a plan which will come with a minimal waiting period.

Check out the Cashless Hospitals Network

Cashless treatment is one of the more crucial benefits which is offered by insurance providers under a health insurance plan. In this benefit, the health insurance policy covers the expenses which are incurred in due course of your hospitalization. 

With cashless treatment plans, insurance providers pay you for your treatment expenses directly to the network hospital covered under it. 

Thus if you want to maximize your benefits under this insurance plan, you should also need to check the number of network hospitals which is covered under this insurance provider.

Choose a Plan with Lifetime Renewability

Lifetime renewability is an essential factor to consider while purchasing a health insurance plan. A lot of us generally tend to forget it. 

But before purchasing, you should make sure that you check the number of years that your policy will remain validated and check whether it is offering a limited lifetime of renewability or not. 

This benefit is very essential because you may require a health plan the most during the later years of age. So, choosing a family health plan which offers lifetime renewability, enables you to continue with that same plan in the coming years to come without the hassle of buying another policy after crossing the age limit. 

For example, your health insurance policy provides you with renewability for 45 years. Once you cross this age, then you may need to buy another policy which will cost you much more. 

Apart from that if you are buying a plan with lifetime renewability, you can easily continue it further in a hassle-free manner.

Choose the Right Sum Insured Amount

It is suggested while you are purchasing medical insurance, make sure to choose the sum insured that you actually require. 

If you are going for a higher sum insured, it will surely increase your premium immensely. In contraction to that, if you going for a sum insured which is lower than you need, it will be insufficient to cover all your medical expenses fully and you may end up paying from your own pocket during claim settlement.

Thus, you should always go for a basic plan along with a lower sum insured, and additionally, you can buy a top-up insurance plan. This top-up plan will surely provide you with additional insurance coverage in case the sum insured by your basic plan gets exhausted.

Check the Exclusions under the Health Insurance Policy

This is one of the important points that most people neglect to review while seeking a health insurance policy which often leads them to opt for a policy or plan that may come without comprehensive coverage.

Most of the time, a health insurance policy do not cover illnesses such as cataract, gastric, hernia, sinusitis, etc., right after their commencement.

Apart from that, there are very few policies that cover the expenses incurred in due course of treating HIV/AIDS, dental treatments, STD, eye care, etc. 

So, before purchasing any health insurance policy, it is suggested to make sure whether it provides you comprehensive coverage or not and make sure that there are fewer exclusions.

Conclusion 

Buying health insurance is a very important decision for an individual because it can help a person in the prevention of a financial crisis in the event of a medical emergency. 

In case you are not sure how to go about a health insurance policy, always keep the above-mentioned tips in your mind and choose the best health insurance policy in India.

*image source from Google

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