Selecting a plan
If you explore the available health insurance policies, you are likely to come across individual health insurances, top-up plans, critical illness, floater, senior citizen plans and more. Making a choice can be an arduous task unless you know the basic features of each of these options (See: Healthcare menu). Taken in right doses, chances are you will have a rock solid protection to financially fight any health related issues. Despite all the options, there are more people who have no health insurance or have a wafer thin health insurance policy.
"About 38 per cent of the population in the age group of 18-35 years and 60 per cent of the population above 45 years of age are underinsured," says G Srinivasan, CMD, New India Assurance. The pet peeve for most is the premium that one pays for health insurance as many feel it costs a lot. "Premium is a factor of age of the individual, people to be covered under a policy, city in which treatment is to be taken and the kind of hospital they plan to choose in the event of a claim," explains Srinivasan. A tradeoff between the cost of insurance and the type of facilities one is aiming at needs to be made.
"Purchase health insurance at early age when health risks are low. The policyholder will be rewarded with cumulative bonus on no claims each passing year, which adds to the initial sum insured, going up as high as up to 50 per cent of the sum insured," says Rajiv Kumar, managing director and CEO, Universal Sompo General Insurance. Moreover, with time, certain conditions like the waiting period exclusions are over and the policyholder is completely protected at a stage when he is more vulnerable to health risks.
Unlike life insurance, where a ballpark ten times annual income or expenses is a good start point on the quantum of cover one needs, health insurance does not have any such indications. "Every individual's needs vary. Start by listing out the important features that you would look for like disease-wise limits, cost sharing arrangement and waiting periods before looking at the premium," advises V. Jagannathan, CMD, Star Health and Allied Insurance. He goes on to detail why choosing the right insurer is even more important than the policy.
"The past track record of the insurer, especially with claim settlement is crucial," he stresses."Although different families have different healthcare needs, it is advisable for a young nuclear family living in a metro city to consider a family floater policy of at least Rs 10-15 lakh sum insured, as it provides adequate coverage for two adults and two young children," feels Antony Jacob, MD and CEO, Apollo Munich Health Insurance. At a very basic level, most employers provide a health insurance policy that is linked to the employee's hierarchy in the organisation and the salary they draw. This is a good start, and for many it is perhaps their first brush with health insurance in any form.