How to buy health insurance online?

Posted by kiran singh on December 26th, 2018

Situations like accidents or sickness don’t inform before knocking your door. And with the changing lifestyle and environment, leading a healthy lifestyle doesn’t guarantee a healthy body anymore too. To worsen the situation even more, medical costs are rising exorbitantly, making it essential for everyone to get a health insurance. 

Getting a good Health Insurance policy means, ensuring coverage for medical and surgical expenses, daycare hospitalization, pre and post hospitalization, critical illnesses, treatment costs, and many other expenses that could unexpectedly arise in the future.

But most people don’t buy it thinking that they are immune to all illnesses and nothing can ever happen to them. It is only when they face a major dent in their pocket, is when they realize the need to get one.

Why Health Insurance Plan in India is Important?

Health issues can suddenly arise and catch you off guard. Therefore, getting a health insurance is not just a good practice, but in fact, is a necessity. Let’s show you why 

The medical costs in India are increasing by 14% to 19% every year. This is in addition to the increase in lifestyle diseases that is spreading across the country. 

However, due to advancements in the medical segment, the existing life expectancy rate has risen substantially. This means as you grow in age, the health issues will start increasing too. But rising medical costs you will find it exceedingly difficult to fund your medical treatment. This will eventually result in taking loans, mortgages and sale of assets to cover these expenses.

But a health insurance plan will take care of most of the expenses associated with treatment and lighten the financial burden. In fact, most insurance companies now offer cashless facility reducing the financial burden even more. This is aside the additional benefits such as daily cash allowance, emergency assistance, critical illness cover, ambulance cover, etc., that the health insurance package entails.

This is where a health insurance plan in India could be a real lifesaver. In this time of unpredictability, a health insurance plan can offer the financial stability for your entire family.

What are the different types of health insurance plans in India?

Confused about which health insurance plan in India would be the ideal one for you? How about we help you get clarity of all the doubts that you have in mind.
 
To begin with - there are three types of health insurance plans:

1. Individual Health Insurance : All the benefits of this plan cover only the individual policyholder
2. Family (Floater) Health Insurance: This is a comprehensive plan that covers the entire family with the given benefits. The total sum insured can be utilized collectively by everyone
3. Group Health Insurance : This insurance policy is usually opted by SMEs for providing coverage to their employees

Other than these, health insurance plans are segmented according to categories that include - hospitalization, mediclaim (individual & group), family floater, senior citizen, maternity, critical illnesses, personal accident, and so on.

How to buy Health Insurance online?

Buying a health insurance policy can be quite time-consuming and a lengthy process. However, in this age and time, a lot of us prefer buying stuff online at the convenience of our home or work-places. Health insurance too is just a click away! Buying a health insurance plan online is an important decision in life, and must be taken wisely. This guide will help you understand the process to purchase a health insurance plan.

Before we move to the steps, always remember these rules when purchasing an insurance policy

• Don’t be in a rush to purchase!
• Don’t buy because someone is recommending it.
• Don’t buy based on the price

Step 1: Know the right amount that will cover your expenses

Since the last few years, the cost for availing healthcare services has grown exponentially, and will only keep increasing. Hospital bills that cost you around ₹. 60,000 to ₹. 6 lakhs, will rise up to ₹. 20 lakhs by 2033 - given the rising inflation. Therefore anticipating the right cost is very important, to avoid financial difficulties.

Step 2: Set the right coverage parameters

Health insurance plans should be chosen based on the needs and requirements, and not recommendations and popularity. You can do that by setting the right parameters that cover the purpose of the policy. These are few parameters that you must keep in mind while planning:

• Room Eligibility: Many insurance companies have a limitation on the price of the room, beyond which the policyholder has to pay. It is recommended that you choose a plan that offers a single private room or a plan that has no limit on room rent.

• Co-payments and Limits: Some health insurance companies have a co-pay clause in the agreement that means, the policyholder has to pay a certain part of the bill.

• Daycare Treatments: These are treatments that do not require hospitalization for more than 24 hours. An ideal health insurance plan will cover such daycare treatments without any restrictions.

• Network Hospitals Coverage: Check whether the top hospitals you are likely to visit in case of an unfortunate hospitalization are covered under the provider network of the insurance company you choose.

• Relevant Benefits: Everyone has a different objective to avail a health insurance and according to that the benefits also change. A newly married couple would be interested in having maternity cover as a part of their plan, while for some cashless claim would be important. Find the elements that are important to you.

• No Claim Bonus: For every claim-free year, you are provided with a cumulative (no claim) bonus ranging from 5 to 100% at the same premium. This can be very useful with the growing inflation.

Step 3: Don’t hide any detail

Disclosure of all the details related to the health and medical history, information and any conditions that you may have is a mandate. You might just get away in the beginning, but this information will eventually come out, leading to the rejection of your claim. Remember, 80-85% of something is always better than 100% of nothing.