The rising healthcare expenses in India often lead to financial strain during medical emergencies. In this regard, health insurance policies offer financial coverage for your treatment, hospitalisation, and other related costs.
If you are worried that buying health insurance may strain your budget, there are several ways you can choose affordable plans that provide an optimal balance between coverage and cost-effectiveness.
Keep scrolling for a detailed guide!
How to Choose Affordable Health Insurance Policies in India?
Here are the ways to select affordable health insurance policies:
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Understand Your Healthcare Needs
Before buying a health insurance policy, you should assess your coverage needs. This includes considering your age, lifestyle, pre-existing conditions, and future health needs. Choosing an affordable plan does not mean you will go for a cheap one; it means understanding your requirements and addressing them properly.
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Select the Right Sum Insured
While focusing on affordable health insurance policies, some individuals ignore their actual coverage needs and end up underinsuring themselves. Thus, you should accurately assess your needs and select the right sum insured. Choosing a lower sum insured will save your money but keep you underinsured. On the other hand, choosing a higher sum insured than your actual needs will exhaust you financially.
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Buy Health Insurance Online
When you buy health insurance online, you can compare policies from multiple companies at a time. This helps you select the one that covers your health insurance needs and also fits your budget. So, you can select the best health insurance companies in India as per your coverage requirements and budget.
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Choose Add-ons Only Wisely
Health insurance add-ons help maximise your coverage beyond the base plan. It allows you to avail specific coverage just by paying a nominal monthly charge. However, choosing unnecessary add-ons can increase your insurance premium.
So, consider going through various add-ons like a critical illness rider, room rent waiver, personal accident cover, etc., and select only those that align with your coverage requirements.
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Select Deductible and Co-payment
Choosing co-payments or deductibles can also reduce your insurance costs. A co-payment is a fixed percentage of the claim that you must pay before gaining coverage. Meanwhile, a deductible is a fixed amount that you need to pay out-of-pocket before the health insurance plan kicks in.
Although co-payments and deductibles reduce your premium amount, they increase your overall costs during hospitalisations.
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Buy a Long-Term Health Insurance Policy
Buying a health insurance policy for a longer tenure helps save your money. It enables you to avoid annual premium increases due to medical inflation, while removing the hassles of timely renewals. Additionally, you get to accumulate the no-claim bonus (NCB) for claim-free years and use it to get lower premiums eventually.
Why is Health Insurance Necessary?
Here are some of the reasons why health insurance is a must-have in today’s world:
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Helps Manage Chronic Disease
Due to factors like stress, pollution, and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, a majority of the Indian population is affected by chronic illnesses like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, asthma, etc. With health insurance policies, you can get coverage for the long-term treatment costs of such conditions. This allows you to focus on treatment without exhausting your hard-earned savings.
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Rising Healthcare Expenses
Medical expenses have been rising drastically over the years, limiting access to quality healthcare for many individuals. A health insurance policy helps cover your medical expenses, pre- and post-hospitalisation costs, follow-up consultations, prescription medications, and more.
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Offers Financial Security
Health insurance covers the expenses incurred in your medical care. So, you do not need to deplete your savings to pay for the healthcare costs. This helps keep your hard-earned money safe and gives you access to the medical care you need without worrying about finances.
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Comprehensive Health Coverage
Buying health insurance from a reliable insurer will allow you to seek comprehensive coverage for a wide range of medical conditions. From cancer to kidney failure, annual health check-up costs to vaccinations, etc., everything gets covered by a comprehensive health insurance plan.
Moreover, you can seek coverage for your parents, spouse, and children as well by opting for a family floater policy.
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Offers Peace of Mind
Today, even a short hospitalisation can lead to a bill in lakhs. Having health insurance enables you to access quality medical care without having to liquidate your assets or incurring debt.
Moreover, cashless health insurance plans enable you to seek treatment at network hospitals without paying anything upfront. This feature helps you avoid the hassles of arranging funds before hospital admission, which can be lifesaving during emergencies.
Factors to Consider While Buying Health Insurance
Before buying a health insurance plan, policyholders must consider the following factors to ensure that the policy meets their health needs effectively:
- Sum Insured: Choose a sum insured amount that meets your anticipated health needs and care expenses based on the inflation level of the area where you stay.
- Claim Settlement Ratio: Review the claim settlement ratio of the insurer to ensure more efficient claims processing. Choose insurance companies with a higher claim settlement ratio of 95%.
- Network Hospitals: Check if the insurer’s cashless network includes your preferred hospitals.
- Waiting Times: To claim health insurance coverage for specific pre-existing conditions, you need to wait for a certain period. This is called a waiting period. Check the waiting period for your selected policy and go for the one with the shorter waiting period.
- No-Claim Bonus: Plans that offer cumulative no-claim bonuses give you higher coverage for years without a claim.
- Exclusions and Sub-Limits: Recognise which illnesses or therapies are not covered and keep an eye out for restrictions on room rent or particular therapies.
- Add-On Benefits: Check if your policy includes add-ons such as maternity coverage, a critical illness rider, and personal accident coverage, tailored to your specific needs.
- Affordability: Balance premium costs with coverage to avoid financial stress.
Selecting the right health insurance plan requires careful comparison and consideration. You need to assess personal health risks, family medical history, and the financial strength of the insurer. Additionally, choosing the plan with the lowest premium can leave you underinsured, which will lead to high medical costs in the event of a hospitalisation.
Thus, consider balancing affordability and comprehensive coverage to get the best of both worlds.
**’The opinions expressed in the article are solely the author’s and don’t reflect the opinions or beliefs of the portal’**
