BEST HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY – HOW TO IDENTIFY ?

First thing comes in mind is Why choose a Health Insurance Policy ? In this fast moving world. People are more attracted to junk foods and improper life style choices. The unhealthy life style will increase the chances of getting sick. We surely don’t need that to happen. But we never know what will happen in future. So, health insurance acts as a precautionary measure. In case of hospitalization, we don’t have to pay from our pocket. If we have a health insurance our major part of savings is protected.

PLAN THAT FITS YOUR REQUIREMENT.

A health insurance provides a variety of options to choose. A policy can be for a student, or a policy for couples, Senior Citizen, Young family or a health insurance for people with heart disease or Diabetic patient. Insurance Company’s have all this options and we need to filter out the best company. Which gets us maximum benefits. A health insurance will be required for Pre-Existing Illness , Maternity or Availability of Treatment Abroad. Our requirement could be anything out of the above mentioned list or anything else also.

All that we have to do is identify our requirement and then filter out health insurance that provides maximum benefit with minimum premium.

WHAT IS CASHLESS HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY?

Next step is to check for cashless treatment option. Each health insurance has certain list of hospitals. Such hospitals provide cashless facility. We must also see the best hospitals in our city, and make sure our policy has those hospitals in the list. Basically in cashless treatment facility we just have to submit our policy details. All the settlement process will be handled between the hospital and insurance company. we don’t have to make any payment of hospital bills from our pocket.

So, we have to be very careful while looking for health insurance. First thing is filter out best hospitals in your city. secondly look for best health insurance that covers those best hospitals in there list.

WHAT EXACTLY THE COVERAGE OFFER ?

The most important steps to look for while choosing the policy. Each policy has certain things to offer. We have to look for the offers which is most important. I will list out those important offers to look for while choosing the insurance.

2. Day Care Treatment

Day Care treatment generally means hospitalization is not required. for more than 24 hours. It should be considered as one of the most important parameter. So while comparing policies based on day care treatment don’t just look for number of treatments covered. But to look for exact definition of such treatments. For example a policy may offers to pay for Eye surgery. Which is a wider definition ; While certain other policy define various illness related to eye and offers to pay for it. So we must check exact specific definition.

3. Room Rent

During admission Hospitals offers various kinds of room. Such as “General Ward” , “Single Bed A/C, “Single Bed Without A/C” Etc., So what we should look into the policy ? We have to see the amount allowed for room rent. All the insurance policy offers certain amount for room rent. Many Policy doesn’t offer to pay for A/C rooms. So, basically we must be aware of what the offer is for room rent.

4. Pre and Post Hospitalization Period

There is not much to explain in this its very easy and simple to understand. Pre Hospitalization period means treatment taken for certain illness before being admitted to hospital. Like wise Post hospitalization refers to treatment needs to be taken after discharge from hospital. So a policy covers certain no of days of Pre and Post hospitalization. On an average a good policy should be able to offer 30 days Pre hospitalization and 60 days post hospitalization.

5. Cap for certain illness

A policy should be chosen very carefully when we look cover for specific illness. We must make sure that sufficient amount is allocated to specific illness that we are looking for. A mediclaim policy has certain list of illness covered under there product and cap limit. Before buying a policy go through all those list and cap amount.

The above mentioned points are considered most important as per my knowledge. There are various other detailing that we have to look into before buying the policy. Those other detailing can be an add on for comparison. But the above 5 is must check and go through each Definitions , terms and conditions of the policy.

OTHER BENEFITS TO LOOK FOR

There are various other things to look for such as Plan’s Waiting period for pre-existing illness, Co-Payment for Elderly family member etc. We should also identify benefits that enhances the sum assured. For example In a year, if we raise no claim from the company certain bonus is offered. Bonus could be deduction in premium amount for upcoming year or as per policy there will be some kind of bonus for making no claims. These are known as No Claim Bonus.

Look for Restoration benefits. Suppose if we claim a part of the sum assured , there are policies which offers restoration of the claimed amount. To make this even clear we will look into an example. Imagine we have a sum assured for Rs.6 Lakhs. During a policy period we had claimed an amount of say Rs. 2 Lakhs. So the balance we have is Rs. 4 Lakhs but In this situation a Health Insurance policy offers to restore Rs.2 Lakhs which he have already claimed it and again our insurance cover has a balance of Rs. 6 Lakhs.

HOW MUCH COVER AMOUNT OUR HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY MUST HAVE?

This subject purely depends on the following criteria

• size of the family
• Number of elderly people in a family.
• Monthly income of the family, On an average it can be 7 times of the salary including other things in mind
• If policy is for specific illness that cost huge expenses etc.,

Conclusion

The above mentioned points are for educational purpose only. I have tried to cover most of the major points that we must look for while selecting health insurance policy. I would request you to consult your own financial advisor before making any changes into your policy. Finotox provides content for educational purpose and read all scheme/policy related documents carefully.