7 Tips to Choose a Health Insurance Plan in India
Undeniably, health insurance is one of the most essential insurance policies to have considering the spike in the occurrence of health problems at an early age, in the current climate. Further, the astronomical medical treatment costs place clear stress on the necessity of having a health insurance policy.
But unfortunately, health insurance in India is the most neglected type of insurance as it doesn’t provide any benefits unless you get sick. While nobody wants to get sick, you must understand that health problems are an undeniable part of our lives. Therefore, it is very important to stay prepared for the financial consequences of a health problem. You cannot plan and get sick, but you can certainly stay financially prepared for the worst.
There are a variety of health plans available in India, from individual plans to family floater and senior citizen health insurance. So, you need to assess your requirements first and then purchase a health plan.
Here are 7 tips to help you choose the best health plan: -
1. Look for the right coverage
Choose a health plan that secures you against a wide range of medical problems, and provides benefits including pre and post hospitalization, daycare expenses, transportation, illnesses that you may be at risk of due to your family's medical history, etc. If you are buying health insurance for your family, check whether the policy meets the needs of each member of your family. Consider your requirements, compare plans on benefits and costs, and apply a little due diligence to choose a plan that caters to your needs.
2. Keep it affordable
While it is important to buy a health plan that meets your needs, it is equally important that it suits your pocket as well. Budget is a hugely important aspect when buying health insurance. But, you should consider the plan benefits before you consider the price of the plan. It is a wise decision to buy a reasonably priced health cover at the start to ensure you are covered properly and the premiums are also affordable. With time, you can review your plan and increase cover appropriately with the rise of income, family size, and requirements.
3. Prefer family over individual health plans
Individual plans are good for individuals who do not have a family to support. However, if you are buying health insurance keeping your family in mind, purchase a family health plan to enjoy maximum benefits at a more affordable price.
4. Choose a plan with lifetime renewability
When you buy a health plan, make sure to check for how many years the plan will cover you or whether it offers limited renewability or not. Why? Because you will require a health plan the most during the later years of age. So, choose health plans which offer lifetime renewability.
5. Compare quotes online
You can compare health insurance policies online to ensure that you buy a health plan that caters to your needs. You can even ‘request a quote’ online which means you can enter your details on the website and get an estimated premium for your policy. Collect the best quotes and then compare them to arrive at a decision.
6. Network hospital coverage
Once you have a selected list of health plans, check whether or not your preferred hospitals and doctors are included in their hospital network. Always prefer an insurance provider that has a wide network of hospitals across the world. With IFFCO-Tokio, you can choose from 5,000+ network hospitals where you can avail quick, convenient and cashless claims settlement!
7. High claim settlement ratio
The claim settlement ratio is the number of claims settled by the insurance provider over the total received claims. Always choose an insurer that has a high claim settlement ratio. We at IFFCO-Tokio have settled a total of 8.61 lakh claims in FY2019 and have a claim settlement ratio of 92.65%. With us, you are in safe hands!
Use these tips to maximize your benefits when you shop for health insurance. It is an investment that you are making to safeguard yourself from the financial burden of high healthcare costs – make sure you make the most of it.
You can also use our health insurance calculator: -
Yes, that’s right! You can use our health insurance calculator to get a better idea of the coverage we offer and the premium of your plan. All you have to do is visit our health insurance page, enter your name & mobile number. After this, just follow the 4 simple steps given below:
1. Choose the kind of plan & enter your details:
After you enter your name & number, you will have to choose between individual & family health insurance plans. Once you make your selection, you need to enter some basic personal details such as your date of birth, your gender, the sum insured you want, your email address, etc.
2. Get a quote
Based on the information you provide, our insurance calculator will present you with an instant quote for your health policy. You can review the coverage & include any add-ons you want. The calculator will re-calculate the premium of your plan based on the edits you have made.
3. KYC
Once you have settled on the coverage & premium of the policy, you can proceed to buy the plan. In order to do this, you will have to fill out the KYC form and tell us about your medical history first. This will hardly take a few minutes and you should remember to scan through all your details to look for any errors before moving forward.
4. Make the payment
Finally, all that’s left to do is pay the premium amount. To make this step easier and more convenient, we offer multiple payment options for you to choose from. After the transaction is processed, you will find the policy document in your mailbox and the coverage of your plan will begin.
Using our health insurance calculator allows you to customize the plan as per your needs and get health insurance in India that’s a perfect fit for your medical needs and your budget.
Don’t forget about add-ons!
This is another important tip you should keep in mind when choosing a health insurance plan in India. Add-ons are optional extras that widen the protection of your policy to better suit your coverage needs. Some of the common add-ons that you can choose from including the following:
Critical illness cover – This is one of the most important add-ons in health insurance. It gives you added peace of mind from the financial impact of life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, stroke, heart disease, etc. So, if you are looking for the best health insurance plan in India, make sure it offers this add-on.
Other important covers to look for:
Not all health insurance plans in India offer the same amount of coverage. Some insurance companies omit certain things to keep the cost of the plan on the lower side. However, this could end up hurting you in the long run. Therefore, when choosing a medical insurance policy, it is important you look out for these important features as well:
1. Ambulance charges – Getting emergency transportation to the hospital is extremely important. However, it can also be quite expensive too! Keeping this in mind, the best health insurance in India will always cover ambulance charges. This ensures that, in a critical situation, you can get prompt help without worrying about the charges.
2. Day Care Procedures – Medical emergencies do not always require overnight hospitalization. There are several healthcare procedures that are costly but require less than 24 hours of hospitalization. The best health insurance in India will cover a higher number of such procedures. In this regard, our plans cover 160+ day procedures.
3. Vaccination & health check-up charges: It is important to look for health insurance in India that covers these costs. Not only do our plans cover vaccination costs, but they also cover health-up charges as well!
4. Daily allowance: Hospitalisation can lead to the loss of income. In this case, miscellaneous expenses can start to pile up! Keeping this in mind, the best health insurance plans in India will offer daily allowance for the number of days you are hospitalized. This will help you cope with expenses better! Our family health insurance plans offer daily allowance of up to a maximum of ₹1,000 per day!
How to buy health insurance in India?
Now that you know how to choose from the various health insurance plans in India, let us tell you how to go ahead and buy a plan. With IFFCO-Tokio, this is the easiest part – you can visit one of our 20,000 branches or authorize agents.
You can rest assured that they will hand-hold you through the entire purchase process and ensure you leave with the policy document in hand and a smile on your face. You can also buy health insurance online. The process is relatively easier and can be completed just by following these 4 steps:
Log onto our website:
Right, the first step would be to visit our health insurance page. Once you’re there, just enter your name and mobile number. After this, you will be redirected to our health insurance calculator. Here you will have to choose between individual and family health insurance plans. Then you will have to enter some simple details such as your date of birth, gender, email address, the sum insured you want, etc.
Get a quote:
Once you submit all these details, our health insurance calculator will provide you with an instant quote. You can customise the quotation by increasing/decreasing the sum insurance and including the add-ons you want. Once you have zeroed-in on the right coverage, you can proceed to the next step.
KYC:
Here you will have to fill out all the required KYC information. You will have to start by filling in your emergency contact details, information about your nominee and other important data. After this, you might have to upload a couple of documents.
Paying for the plan:
Once you have completed the KYC, all that’s left to do is make the payment. We offer several payment options & gateways to choose from. Once the transaction is successful, the policy document will land in your inbox and the coverage of your policy will begin!
Find out the tips for buying health insurance which will help you to make the correct decision
**To understand exactly about the policy coverage, exclusions, etc. read the Policy Wordings carefully.**
