Health insurance plans provide safety and security to policyholders and their loved ones. People want to find the best medical insurance plan to help cover any possible options. They want to purchase a plan that offers the best benefits, coverage, and lowest premiums. While it is possible to find such an insurance plan, many competitive insurance companies are excellent in their own right.
Finding the best medical insurance in India among all the insurance providers needs to be clarified for many people. There are many ways and criteria potential policyholders can keep to find their perfect insurance plan. Here are some useful pointers to help you pick the best insurance plan for you and your loved ones.
Why Search for the Best Policy?
You need to search for the best health insurance plan to keep up with rapidly rising medical costs. Medical inflation has been quoted to have raised medical costs in India in the past year by 15%. Finding the best insurance plan also secures a healthy future for your family without being concerned about medical expenses.
Having a good insurance policy not only covers hospitalisation but also other complicated health issues as well. Without an insurance plan, these medical costs can rapidly skyrocket, which forces you to use your savings or take a medical loan.
Tips to Pick the Best Insurance Policy
Some important tips to finding the best insurance policy are:
Coverage
The most important reason anybody buys an insurance policy is because of the coverage it offers. It is advised for people to find the widest coverage they can afford. You do not want to get short of coverage when it is most needed. The widest coverage will protect you from a large range of health-related expenses. Extensive coverage includes:
- Hospitalisation Expenses
- Ambulance Expenses
- Health Check-ups
- Critical Illness
- Alternative Medical Treatments
- Cumulative Bonuses
To fully know what coverage an insurance plan offers, it is essential to thoroughly go through the policy documents. You can then understand what coverages are included and excluded from the plan you are interested in.
Sum Insured
Sum insured is the maximum amount of money an insurance company can provide you with in a year for any medical emergencies. Any amount that goes over the sum insured will not be covered by your insurance provider but by you. This is what makes picking the right sum insured so important for policyholders.
It is advised for your sum insured to be at least 50% of your yearly income. It is also important to note that the higher the sum insured, the higher the medical insurance premiums you have to pay. For example, Medical insurance for senior citizens, which is already expensive, becomes more costly with a higher sum insured.
Waiting Periods
Most insurance plans have a waiting period, within which the insurance will not accept any claims. Insurance companies uphold waiting periods for pre-existing diseases, maternity and some specific health conditions. Waiting periods are usually enforced for 1 or 2 years. Any claims made during this time are not accepted by the insurer. Some of the best medical insurance in India allow people to start their coverage without any waiting periods at all.
Settlement Ratio
Claim Settlement Ratio is the ratio of the total claims settled divided by the total claims the company received. A higher claim settlement ratio indicates that policyholders have a better possibility of having their insurance claim settled by the insurance company. Thus, while searching for an insurance plan, choosing an insurance company with a high claim settlement ratio is important.
Flexible Plans
It is important to look at how flexible the insurance plans you are interested in are. Flexible insurance plans allow policyholders to add family members such as your partner, parents, in-laws, or potential children. This flexibility drastically reduces the cost of getting a new policy and paying extra medical insurance premiums for your loved ones.
Renewability
Renewability is an important factor when selecting an insurance plan as it allows you to renew a plan over and over again. When you buy an insurance plan, check the number of times you can renew it, and whether the plan offers lifetime renewability. Renewability is an especially important aspect to look for when choosing a policy. This is because insurance plans become more important as you grow older. By finding a good policy with lifetime renewability, you can continue the same plan for a long time without worrying about skyrocketing premiums or other more expensive policies.
Compare Multiple Plans
When searching for the best medical insurance in India, compare the various policies using the parameters explained above. By comparing the various policies on these parameters, they understand what they are receiving in their policy compared to other policies. Policyholders can compare different plans online on various insurance companies and find the best deal.
Final Thoughts
You can use the information provided above to search and find the best medical insurance plan for you and your loved ones. Some of the best medical insurance in India like Niva Bupa offer many different plans that you can go through to find the best policy. They also provide all the information about their plans on their website for you to find. Look at all the above points and research the policies you’re interested in to make an informed decision for you and your loved ones.