Hello! My Dear Friends
In today's world with the amount of impurities intake in the form of food or pollution and also the inadequate lifestyle keeps affecting our health. As you know how expensive every visit to the hospital is and in the worst case if we need to get admitted or hospitalized due to any mishappening the bill crosses lakhs easily. So, why not plan our medical expenses every year and keep investing. This is the most important investment required in your life since this is all about your HEALTH. Let's invest our few minutes and discuss in detail and hope by the end of this blog you get your most investment plan ready.
What is Health Insurance?
Insurance that will cover the whole or a part of the risk of an individual or family incurring medical expenses is specifically termed as Health Insurance Policies.
Why Health Insurance?
I would say buying a health insurance policy helps an individual financially prepared for all health risks and their huge expenses. Listing a few reasons why we should right away think to invest in a health insurance policy -
- Inadequate LifeStyle
- Rising Medical costs - Almost all charges will be covered
- Income Tax Benefit - Save up to Rs.65,000 under 80D (Click here to know more)
- Pre and Post Hospitalization - All expenses 60 days pre-hospitalization and 180 days post hospitalization will be covered according to the plan.
- Additional Benefits - Like Ambulance Charge, Free Medical CheckUp, Surgeries, etc.
Types of Health Insurance?
Mainly we have 2 types of health insurance -
- Individual Insurance - Insurance in which only one person will be covered.
- Floater Insurance - Insurance in which you can cover your family. Taking an example, suppose Rahul has taken floater insurance in which his family(Rahul himself, wife, son, mother, father) is covered for a total of 20 lakhs/annum. Now the problem in this will be the insurance will be charged on the basis of the age of the oldest member in the plan. Now since Rahul's Dad age is around 59 years he is paying a huge premium.
Individual or Floater Plan?
- Assuming if you are a family of 6 members (Yourself, Wife, Son, Daughter, Father, Mother) try to break it into two policies.
- Take a Floater Policy of around 10 lakh (this may vary according to your requirement) for 4 members (Yourself, Wife, Son, Daughter) and this will cost your premium to cut down to more than half since now the oldest member of the plan are you somewhat around 28 years.
- Take one more Floater Policy around 10 lakh for your Father and Mother since they have the same age group, also since they are almost 60 years old so the chance of getting medical issues will be more.
- Now eventually you are paying for 20 lakh/annum premium but the premium cost will come drastically down, because of your planning. This is how planning finance helps you with saving money. (Click here to know more)
How to select the best companies to provide health insurance policies?
There are many factors which are required to check before we select our health insurance plan, so I am listing out a few major factors out of those which I considered picking my top three companies -
- Incurred Claim Ratio - It should be between 50% - 90%.
- Geographical location - You need to check, which companies provide cashless benefits in hospital nearby you and also which companies have a higher number of hospital coverage.
- No Specific Capping - Suppose you have taken a 5 Lakh insurance but the company has capping like Rs 3000/day for a room or Rs 10000/day for Operation theatre then don't consider those plans.
- Pre and Post Hospitalization - How days of pre and post hospitalization expenses are covered in your plan.
- Disease Coverage - Your plan should not have an insured amount specific to any disease.
- Short Waiting Period for existing disease - While taking an insurance plan if you mention any pre-existing disease, so the insurance company will give a term to not insure that disease for the next 3yrs or maybe 5 yrs. So try to pick a plan which has a short waiting period.
- No Claim Bonus - In case you are not claiming your insurance so every year your company should either decrease the premium amount or increase the insured amount by a good percentage. Higher the percentage better the scheme. eg. 50% or 100% or 150%.
- Restore Benefits - Suppose you have 5 Lakh insurance and 5 Lakh restore benefits, so you should select that company in which suppose your medical bill is 7 lakh so it should refill 5 Lakh + 2 Lakh automatically and pay the hospital 7lakh. What few companies have to restore benefits but they will say first you can avail 5 lakh, once the 5 lakh is over then you can opt for 5 lakh refill. The problem in this is if your hospital bill is 7 Lakh they will say you can avail up to 5 Lakh only in this case. Since this 5 Lakh is over from next time you can avail your next 5 Lakh, so hospital bill is 7 Lakh and you have to pay 2 Lakhs from your pocket.
Top 3 Health Insurance Policies and their Detailed Analysis -
So considering all discussed points above the top 3 companies are -
- HDFC ERGO
- STAR
- RELIGARE
| Parameters | HDFC ERGO | STAR | RELIGARE |
| Incurred Claim Ratio | 63% | 63% | 55% |
| Pre - Hospitalisation | 60 days | 60 days | 30 days |
| Post -Hospitalisation | 180 days | 90 days | 60 days |
| Sum Insured Plans | 3 Lakhs - 50 Lakhs | 5 Lakhs - 1 Crore | 3 Lakhs - 75 Lakhs |
No Claim Bonus (For every 2 years) | 100% | 100% | 150% |
Restore Benefits (Explained above) | Completely Available | Partially Available | Partially Available |
| Waiting Period | 3 years | 4 years | 4 years |
| Room Rent | No Capping | No Capping | No Capping |
| Day Care | Available | Available | Available |
| Ambulance Expenses | Rs.2000 per Hospitalisation | Rs.2000 per Year | Rs.2000 per Hospitalisation |
| Free Preventive Health Check-Up | Per 2 years | Per 1 year | Per 2 years |
Mistake while Investing in Health Insurance -
- Always take your Critical Illness and Accidental Cover in your Term Plan.
My Final Review -
- If you go in my opinion I will rate HDFC ERGO then STAR and then RELIGARE. But surely this are my opinion, this may vary from person to person.
Bonus Tips -
- Try to take a health insurance plan as early as possible this will surely save a lot of amounts while some major medical expenses come.
- Always try to get a review of the policy you are taking by someone expert in your family.
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