As per the study, medical expenses are increasing by 17% every year. Thus, it’s extremely vital to take a health policy right away. A health insurance not only protects you financially during an illness, but also during events like accidents, which can occur at any age, at any time.
While choosing a health plan, we need to think through few things like:
1. Coverage Amount: This can be determined based on the location/city that you stay in.
For eg., people staying in Tier I cities (or metro cities) must have a base of ₹10 Lacs cover, while others at Tier II & III must have at least ₹5 Lacs of health cover.
2. Family Floater or Individual Plan: Depending upon the number of members in your family, decide what’s best for you.
Generally, in a family floater plan, you can include your spouse, children and even parents. Thus, all the members of the family are dependent on a single cover. On the other hand, in an individual plan, each member of the family has a separate fixed cover amount. You can compare the premium and total benefit between the two and decide what suits your requirement.
3. Room Rent Caps & Sub-limits: Caps or sub-limits are certain thresholds set on various expenses. Some insurance providers may or may not come with such sub-limits on hospital room rents, which should be understood properly before buying the health plan. You can find health plans which will have no sub-limits on room rents, that will allow you to stay in the choice of your room when hospitalized.
4. Copay and Deductibles: There are certain health plans which will come with copayments or deductibles, which means a part of the claim amount needs to be paid by the customer first and then only the rest amount will be paid by the company. The premium for such plans will be little lower than the usual one.
5. Option for Cashless Claim: At a time of medical emergency, nobody likes to run around collecting documents and filling reimbursement forms. Every health insurance provider is tied with certain hospitals that give cashless treatments, making it hassle-free for the customers.
6. Waiting Period: As per health insurance norms, there is certain waiting periods that needs to be abided, like
- an initial 30 days waiting after a new policy is bought,
- there is 24 months waiting period for specific diseases like cataract, hernia, joint replacement etc.,
- A 36 or 48 months waiting period will be imposed for any pre-existing diseases (PED)