Medical emergencies like diseases, sickness and accidents may result in prolonged hospitalization. This may increase your medical treatment expenses beyond your budget limit.
Due to rising medical cost, health insurance has become an indispensable tool in today’s world. To avoid financial crisis in future, you can avail a health insurance policy for taking care of your hospitalization cost.
With so many health insurance companies, it’s very difficult to pick one to meet your requirements.
Here are 5 things which one should keep in mind while choosing health insurance plan.
Health Insurance’s Renewal Age
Renewal age is the age after which your health insurance policy will discontinue and your insurance plan will not be effective.
Different companies have different renewal age based on the health insurance you avail. Some companies have 75 years as renewal age and some others have 70 years.
In today’s market few companies like Apollo Munich, Max Bupa, National Insurance, New India, Oriental and united which provides lifetime coverage. We suggest you to go for lifetime products as after 70 years you need them at most.
Diseases Covered
You need to look at the list of diseases that are covered by each of these products. Pre-existing diseases are not covered by most of these health insurance policies.
However, you have to look for the period till which these diseases are not covered. Some health insurance policies do not cover pre-existing diseases for four years and some others do not cover it for three years.
In addition to the list of diseases, you can also look for size of your claim cover. If you are living in a small town then by looking at medical expenses you can go for a lower amount compare to higher amount in case of a bigger city where hospitalization cost is more.
Co-Pay
Co-Pay is the share that the customers have to pay from their own pocket. This amount will be calculated on the admissible amount that insurance company has approved out of the total claim amount.
For example; if your total amount claimed is Rs. 1, 20,000 and insurance company has approved up to Rs. 1, 00,000 based on the terms and conditions of your health insurance plan then having a 10% co-pay in your health insurance plan, you need to pay Rs. 10, 000 from your own pocket i.e. 10% of Rs.1, 00,000 and balance amount of Rs.90, 000 will be paid by Insurance company.
Waiting Period
After signing for a health insurance policy with any insurer you will not get covered with immediate effect. The policy will be in effect after the waiting period over i.e. if anything happened in between the waiting period then insurance company will not pay you a single rupee.
The insurer will also not cover any of your illness if they get diagnosed within the waiting period from the effective date of the policy. This waiting period depends on the insurer, type of diseases and policy that you take.
Check Empaneled Hospital List
You need to look for hospitals that are covered in your town or nearer to your locality so that in case of emergency you can visit that hospital which is close to your home and get it covered in your claim.
These hospitals are generally instructed by the insurance companies regarding their claim procedures and they do that without asking you any question. You can get the empaneled hospital list from health insurance Company’s website.
You also can claim income tax benefit of up to Rs 15, 000 under section 80D of Income Tax Act.
