With the cost of healthcare rising, funding healthcare expenses out of your pocket can leave a significant dent in your savings. However, if you have a comprehensive health insurance policy plan in place, you can tackle these expenses without much hassle.
When it comes to health insurance, there is no one-size fits all formula. In other words, the healthcare needs of every individual vary. Understanding this, insurance providers in India have launched different plan variants that cater to customers’ specific needs and budgets. So, now you don’t have to settle for the first plan that comes your way. While this has made getting your health insured easier, it has also increased the possibility of making a misinformed choice.
To avoid this, all you have to do is compare plans. Comparing parameters like sum insured, coverage, network hospitals, room rent limit, co-pay, and waiting periods will help you maximize benefits, while minimizing costs. Since you know your budget and health risks best, comparing options will make the decision easier. If you’re still on the fence about the need for comparison, here are a few reasons that’ll help convince you of its need.
Why is Comparison Necessary?
Health insurance plan comparisons help you pick the right plan from the sea of options available in the market. Here’s why policy comparisons are crucial before shortlisting a plan:
1. To Keep Premiums Affordable
While buying the best health insurance policy is an obvious priority, being practical about the plan’s cost is also crucial. Your insurance premiums are calculated based on different factors like age, sum insured, medical history, etc. Weightage distribution among these factors varies from one insurance provider to the next. In other words, an insurance policy with the same sum assured and benefits may have different premium quotes depending on the selected insurer.
Factoring in affordability helps avoid future premium defaults and insurance lapses. Comparing policies and providers lets you choose a plan with the best cost-to-benefit ratio vis-a-vis your healthcare needs.
2. To Understand Coverage Umbrellas, Features, and Benefits
Catering to the varied insurance needs of customers, insurance providers offer different types of plans with varied coverage, features, and benefits. From family and individual health insurance plans to plans made for senior citizens and critical illness plans, the options are endless. However, not every variant will suit your needs.
For instance, many policies don’t have built-in maternal or critical illness benefits but do offer these benefits under an add-on paid cover. Similarly, some cover day-care procedures, while others list them under policy exclusions. Some plans may offer a high room rent and daily cash allowance, while others cap the former and don’t offer the latter. So, by cross-referencing the features and benefits of plans, you can channelize your requirements and pick a plan that best meets your needs.
3. To Minimize Waiting Periods
With chronic ailments like diabetes and CVT becoming more common, most of us purchasing insurance plans have pre-existing diseases (PEDs). Most insurance providers don’t cover PEDs from day one. Instead, they offer PED coverage only after a certain number of years. In some cases, this wait time can range up to 4 years. You have to fall back on out-of-pocket funding for all PED-related medical costs arising during this waiting period.
However, long waiting periods defeat the purpose of health insurance coverage, increasing the financial strain on your pocket. Now, you have to pay for both the premiums of the plan as well as your PED medical bills. Comparing policies helps you pick one with the shortest waiting period. It allows you to assess waiting periods for different conditions and then make an informed choice.
4. To Review the Insurer’s Claim Settlement Ratio
You are buying a health insurance policy to have your medical costs reimbursed. Thus, reviewing the claim settlement ratio of the insurer is mandatory. Choosing an insurance provider with a high claim settlement ratio gives you peace of mind. This means your claims are less likely to be rejected.
Comparing insurers allows you to assess the reputation and customer ratings too. You gain valuable insight into how the claim settlement process is simple or complicated, what is the turn-around time, etc. All this helps you gauge the reliability of the insurance provider.
Summing It Up
From ensuring affordability to optimizing coverage and minimizing waiting periods – the benefits of comparing policies are many. Fortunately, you don’t need to manually compare health insurance plans since several aggregator websites streamline this task on your behalf. Simply visit one such website and compare plans completely free-of-cost to find one that balances cost and coverage.
