In India, medical inflation is growing at a faster rate than overall inflation. Many families have begun to feel the burden. At the same time, lakhs of young individuals suffer from lifestyle-related ailments, causing medical expenditures hard to avoid. The need of the hour for people right now is to have a financial back-up that will protect their valuable savings – something which takes years to build. Investing in a health insurance policy will give you just the right financial cushion when medical emergencies befall without any warning. Nowadays, getting a health cover is easy. All you need to do is look for the best health insurance companies in India online, compare the various policies and features, and buy a policy in a few clicks.

First, to know how beneficial a health cover can be, let us understand how health insurance works and what it actually means. A health insurance plan is a type of insurance that provides coverage for various medical expenses a person incurs.

How a Health Insurance Policy Works?

Unlike a mediclaim policy, health insurance covers hospital bills and those medical expenses that a person may incur apart from hospitalization, such as pre and post hospitalization expenses.

To avail of the coverage benefits of a health insurance policy, the policyholder is required to pay a regular premium to the insurer. This premium amount is decided based on several factors, including the insured person’s age, type of coverage, sum insured, pre-existing condition, policy tenure, and so on.

Benefits offered by Health Insurance

Some of the major benefits you will get if you choose the best medical insurance policy are listed below:

• In-patient care including room rent and ICU charges
• Pre and post hospitalization cover like diagnostic tests, medication, etc.
• Ambulance cover
• Cover for day care treatment
• Domiciliary care
• Annual health check-up
• No claim bonus
• Automatic recharge of sum insured

The best comprehensive medical insurance policy also comes with maternity benefits, alternative treatment cover, and lifelong renewability. In addition, the insured person has the option to choose various add-on covers for an additional premium.

Tips on Choosing the Best Health Insurance

Here is a quick guide to help an individual pick the best medical insurance policy:

Assess your insurance needs: Choose the right type of health policy, depending on what you are looking for. For example, if you have a family, then go for a family floater plan that will cover you and your immediate family members like spouse, children, and dependent parents. If you have a medical condition like diabetes, then, some of the best health insurance companies in India now offer diabetes health insurance plans, so you can get a customized policy. Similarly, if you have elderly parents above 60 years, getting a senior citizen health cover is a smart decision.

Identify the Sum Insured: Analyse how much your medical expenses might be in a year, which will help you select an adequate sum insured option for you and your loved ones. In a family floater plan, the sum insured is shared by the insured members, so it is better to opt for a higher sum insured in such a case. The same applies if you or any member is suffering from a medical condition because you might incur high expenses.

Estimate Your Premium: You now have access to digital tools like an online health insurance premium calculator that gives you a proper estimate of the premium amount. So, it helps you compare various policies by knowing the premium amount, thus finalizing an affordable option for yourself or your loved ones.

Compare Various Features: When going through the policy features, make sure it offers all the key benefits of health insurance. Also, notice the fine print when going through the policy documents. Read and understand the terms and conditions that will ensure you make the most of your health cover without facing any hassle at the time of filing a claim. To be more specific, check the waiting period clause, co-payment, exclusions, sub-limits, and deductibles in the health insurance policy.

Claim Settlement Ratio: It is the ratio of the total number of claims an insurance company settles to the total claims made in a financial year. Ideally, if the claim settlement ratio is above 90%, that would mean that chances of the insurer settling your claim is higher. It is a good benchmark when comparing various policies. For example, Care Health Insurance had a claim settlement ratio of 92.3% in the financial year 2019-20.

Filing a Claim under a Health Insurance Plan

To avail of the benefits of a health cover, the policyholder usually has two options. One is the reimbursement option, where initially he or she has to bear the medical or hospitalization expenses from the pocket and then apply for a reimbursement claim. It involves submitting a claim form along with relevant documents. The insurer will then verify and reimburse the expenses.

There is another way to get the claim – the cashless facility. Here, the insured can get admission to any of the insurer’s network hospitals and access cashless treatment. There is no need to make direct payments to the hospital as the expense is settled by the insurance company, subject to policy terms and conditions. This feature is highly beneficial as it saves time and effort.

When picking a health cover, it is better to check if there is a cashless feature and go through the network hospitals list. Care Health Insurance has 11,000+ cashless healthcare providers, and HDFC Ergo has 10,000+ network hospitals. The higher the number of hospitals in the insurer’s network, the more chances you have of finding a good hospital in your locality.

Conclusion

This article is a guide that will help you understand health insurance in India and how you can benefit from a comprehensive health plan. Further, if you have opted for a health insurance policy, you get tax benefits, too, an opportunity to increase your savings. That is, for the premium you pay for your policy, you become eligible for income tax deductions under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act. So, overall, it is the best investment for your financial safety.