8 tips on choosing the right health insurance policy
The medical treatment cost is increasing day by day and therefore, to protect one’s financial profile, it is necessary for people to have effective health insurance. Getting health insurance in this era is not a tough task as there are ample of service providers out there in the market who offer various plans, getting the right health insurance is much important and a tricky job. There are many small points that one needs to check and keep in mind while going for a health insurance plan. Here are some tips provided that can help one get the right health insurance.
- Don’t forget to have individual health insurance: Usually, those who work with a company get health insurance in a group of employees. Here one must note that even if he is covered by the company, he needs to have individual health insurance. This can help him to get protected even if the company does not have insurance or he has changed the job or left the company under any circumstances. Having Individual health insurance can help him stay safe and enjoy the benefits of the same while going for renewal.
- Get perfect sum assured: For health insurance and protection in case of a significant treatment, it is necessary for one to have the right sum assured. Here one needs to note that sum assure has a direct relation with the premium and hence many times people prefer to have health insurance with low sum assured. If in any case, one needs to have a treatment with more cost, he may be in trouble in such a situation when the sum assured is low. On the other side, it must not be more than required also as the premium for more sum assured is more. Hence one needs to have a balanced approach at this stage. If one is not sure about the amount to require for his sum assured it is better to ask an expert or consult the agent personally.
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- Get health insurance at an early age: One with a young age may not have any health issue, and hence he can get better health insurance at a low cost at an early age. Later he gets benefits of renewal and no claim which leads to having a low premium even if the age is more. Hence it is recommended to start health insurance at a young age only.
- Check for lifetime renewability: Usually, people while buying health insurance hardly pay attention to renewability. Hence after some time, the policy gets lapsed, and one needs to pay more premium when he goes to have another health insurance. To avoid such situation, it is better to check the renewability of the plan beforehand only.
- Go for a plan with a top-up feature: Health insurance is to counter the expenses of medical treatment. In some cases, when one has to make a claim and again in the same period of insurance, there is another claim, the second claim gets declined due to lack of available sum assured. To avoid such a situation, one needs to have a plan where top-up is possible. In such plans, one can go for more sum assured with a limited payment to the service provider.
- Check for claim loading: It is an important point one needs to check before buying health insurance. There are service providers in the market who charge a loading amount in case of a claim. In some cases, the loading amount is higher also, which can affect the premium and benefits of the insurance. Hence while buying the policy, one must check this point first and avoid such plans which have claim loading.
- Check waiting period for the pre-existing disease coverage: Pre-existing disease are those which are already there with the client, and because of that, there can be other ailments also. Hence in the majority of the cases, the service providers do not cover the pre-existing diseases and also any other diseases that are the result of these pre-existing diseases only. To cover these diseases, there are some terms and conditions which vary from service provider to service provider. Some service provider cover them after 90 days while some others cover them after 2 years also. If one already suffers from some diseases, he needs to check this clause first and get the plan that can help him to cover these diseases at the earliest.
- Check for sublimit: The sub-limit of a plan is also an essential element where one may have opted for the floater policy. In floater policies different family members have a sum assured offered which is same for all. For example, if a plan has a sum assured of 10 lakhs, and there are four members, the sum assured can be said as 250000 to each member. Now in case, one member needs a treatment which cost 500000 than the sum assured can be adequately provided. If there is a sub-limit of 250000, the rest 250000 of the treatment has to be borne by the client in this situation. Hence one needs to avoid the plans with any sub-limit and go for the total sum assured only.
Adding to these points, one also needs to see that if his hospital is in network list or not else, he may not get the benefit of a cashless claim or he has to get treatment from a different hospital than usually from where he gets the treatment.