5 Points to Remember before getting Health Insurance

Bajaj Capital Insurance

The process of Choosing and buying the health insurance is not an easy task because market is flooded with variety of insurance offerings. Health Insurance is a vital part of living healthy financial life because out of pocket sudden medical expenses may cause financial disaster.

Before you start purchasing health insurance, identify your need (what kind of coverage you want), know the exclusions and limitations, check for the network hospitals for cashless claims, room rent capping etc.  In addition, do not forget to compare different health insurance offerings.

Every health insurance comes with certain features, which make it different from others. You need to be very careful to check which fits your needs.

Following are the five aspects that one should know before making any health insurance purchase-

• Don’t Compare Premiums: Never start the health insurance comparison with the insurance premium. Health insurance is a complex plan tightly coupled with the complex services that are necessary to understand. Comparing healthcare insurance product requires deeper insights into the overall insurance contract over and above price comparison. Either you need to get yourself into comparing the features in detail, or take help of an unbiased health insurance adviser.

• Sum assured/Top up plans: The amount of money that any insurance company ensures to pay up to the policyholder is the sum assured. Find out what is the best sum assured amount for you, as medical cost increases day by day in busy hospitals in India. The value if 2-3 lakhs have no value in metros. Top up plans offers you additional coverage at low cost. These plans cover over & above the actual health insurance plan hence increase the sum assured.

• How premium Changes: there are many factors which defines the premium like your age band, number of covered members, pre-existing disease, tobacco product/ alcohol consumption, your lifestyle etc. We always recommend to compare the products before making decision.

• Cumulative Bonus: As per the IRDA norms, each claim free year the policy holder gets a benefit knows as cumulative bonus.  A specified percentage of Sum Assured in increased every year only if the policy is renewed without any break.

• Ensure that you have a good adviser: Find a good health insurance adviser, which gives you unbiased information, without having any influence from any health insurer.