Tips to Choose the Best Health Insurance Plan

No matter how old or healthy you are, having health insurance is very important. With the rising medical expenses, it becomes all the more vital to buy this important insurance plan at the right time. Now, with so many companies offering mediclaim plans, it often becomes difficult to pick the right one. To help you, we have enlisted some of the useful tips to buy the best health insurance plan.

How to Choose the Best Health Insurance Plan in India?

Are you looking for health insurance plans and not sure which one to buy? If so, then you are at the right place as we are here to help you with some of the best ways in which you can select the best plan for yourself.

• Analyse Your Requirements: First and foremost, you must analyze your health insurance needs. This means that you should check the coverage you need for yourself and your family members. Coverage means the total expenses that will be covered in your plan. So, check your health needs and based on that buy the right plan for yourself and your loved ones.
• Check the Sum Insured: Another thing that you must check is the sum insured. You should ideally choose the sum insured that you need. It is important to remember that if you choose a sum insured that is higher then you will ultimately end up paying higher premiums. So, be wise in choosing the sum insured and never choose a lower sum insured just for the sake of paying lesser premiums.
• Plan Type: There are many types of health insurance plans available such as individual health plans, family health plans, senior citizen plans, and many more. So, while buying a mediclaim plan, you should understand which of these plans best suits your needs. For instance, if you have dependant parents then it is ideal to buy senior citizen health insurance plans for them. On the other hand, if you have no financial dependants, then it makes sense to buy an individual plan for yourself.
• Claim Settlement Ratio: The claim settlement ratio of an insurance company is a determining factor in choosing the best health insurance plan. The claim settlement ratio or CSR basically refers to the ratio between the number of claims raised to the number of claims settled in a year. This means that the higher the claim settlement ratio, the more beneficial will it be for policyholders to get their claims settled.
• Network Hospitals: Network hospitals in health insurance are those that offer cashless hospitalisation to the insured. These hospitals have tie-ups with insurance companies and help policyholders get quality treatment without spending anything from their own pocket. So, when buying a health insurance plan, you choose an insurer that has a higher number of network hospitals. The more the number of network hospitals, the easier it becomes to find a nearby network hospital.
• Waiting Period: The waiting period is the time during which policyholders cannot raise a health insurance claim. So, while buying such plans, you should always check the waiting period for pre-existing conditions.
• Health Insurance Premium: To get health insurance coverage, you need to pay a certain amount which is called a premium. You should buy a plan with an affordable premium so that you can easily pay it on time. However, also remember that on including add-ons to the plan, the premium goes up. So, be wise while adding add-ons such as hospital cash, critical illness rider, and more.

Take Away

So, keep the above pointers in mind while buying health insurance plans. You should also check with your insurer about the inclusions and exclusions in your plan.

Also read: Factors That Individuals With Pre-existing Conditions Need to Consider On Buying Health Insurance