Being sick is a bothersome sensation. After a tiring workday, you want to snooze the alarm clock a little bit longer and fall asleep sooner. However, you can’t wait to get out of a hospital bed when you’re recuperating from a medical condition. Apart from the need to recover quickly, being in a hospital keeps your mind occupied with a lot of other things, such as the prospect of receiving a diagnosis other than the one you were initially admitted for, the mounting expenses, and the monotonous hospital food that you can’t stand. However, all of these problems intensify tenfold if you lack adequate a health insurance plan. If you want to purchase term insurance, health insurance plan, etc, check out Policy Ghar.
How to Choose Health Insurance Plans: Important Advice to Take Into Account
Even though your health insurance coverage might not allow you to personalize every detail, you should be good if you make sure of the following.
Tip 1- Select a policy with a respectable sum insured:
The maximum coverage amount your insurer offers while you are hospitalized is known as the sum insured, as was previously mentioned. Because inflation is at an all-time high, you must ensure that you have insurance that protects you from rising medical costs, especially if you want to receive care from the greatest specialists at the finest institutions. Recall that your odds of having all of your medical expenses paid for are higher the bigger the amount insured.
Tip 2- Select your policy’s Super Top-Up Plan:
Opting for a policy that offers a super-top choice is among the best advice when purchasing health insurance. By making a little payment, you can increase the sum protected under your insurance with a super top-up. For example, you might just have to pay a few thousand rupees to obtain coverage worth ₹50 lakhs, ₹1 crore, or even ₹2 crores if you purchase a policy with a base sum insured of ₹10 lakhs. The sole prerequisite for obtaining the super top-up coverage is to have used up the entire base amount of ₹10 lakhs.
Though many policies offer sums insured of ₹10 and ₹20 lakh, you might think about getting a super-top-up cover with sums insured of ₹50 lakhs to ₹2 crores if you truly want to be prepared for the future.
Tip 3- Make Sure the Hospital Network of the Insurer Is Wide:
It would seem pointless to get a big sum insured coverage if you have to pay cash upfront and then submit a refund claim. So, looking into the insurer’s hospital network is one of the health insurance recommendations to keep in mind while choosing a policy or an insurer. Because you won’t have to worry about upfront payments, choosing insurance with a large cashless network of hospitals is advantageous. While the insurance handles direct communication with the hospital, you may focus on receiving essential care.
Tip 4- Examine the Coverage Your Policy Offers:
Everybody desires a health insurance plan with the most comprehensive coverage. However, no two policies are alike. Make sure you are covered against certain conditions by your policy. Does it cover ailments that already exist? What about the treatment of critical illnesses? If you select an alternative course of treatment, will you be able to submit claims? Does it protect you against cataract surgeries, COVID-19, and other relevant expenses during pregnancy? You must ask yourself these questions in order to guarantee comprehensive coverage.
Tip 5- Personalize with Add-on Riders:
You can add more options if your policy doesn’t provide enough coverage. For instance, by including a critical illness rider, you can increase your coverage for major illnesses. If an accident results in a condition that keeps you from working, you can also add a permanent disability rider to get a set payment.
Tip 6- Look for Bonus Features With No Claims:
The majority of health insurance policies have a feature called a “No Claims Bonus,” which allows your insurer to raise your maximum coverage amount without raising your premiums. The sole warning is that you weren’t supposed to submit an insurance claim. The insurer will boost your sum insured by 10% for the first year of no claims and by 50% for the next five years that you remain claim-free. Thus, if your policy’s current sum covered is ₹20 lakhs, it may rise to ₹30 lakhs over the course of five claim-free years.
Tip 7- Verify That Your Policy Has a Lifetime Renewal Clause:
In your haste to choose the greatest health insurance policies, one thing you can forget is the length of coverage. There are restrictions on the amount of years your insurer will provide coverage for many policies. When you get to your golden years—your 70s and beyond—you might not always be able to get coverage. However, isn’t old age the period when you are most likely to become sick and may require the greatest amount of coverage? So, you need to be sure that a lifetime renewal clause is included in your health plan.
Tip 8: Check coverage for pre-existing diseases:
Before purchasing insurance, you must consider any preexisting ailments or diseases. There is usually a one to four-year waiting time before you can file a claim for a pre-existing condition under policies that include it. Depending on the severity of your disease, you may choose to have a plan that covers your conditions after a specified period of time.
Tip 9- Check for Plan adaptability:
The ability to add family members to a single policy at a premium increase is available with many health insurance policies. Find out if your insurance plan permits the addition of a new family member and provides instant coverage for them without a waiting period when you are expecting a new addition to the family. Any other family members should be able to be added as needed, enabling you to make sure that in the event of a medical emergency, your loved one will be just as safe as you.
Tip 10- Sub-limit help:
The full cost of hospitalization, including lodging and treatment costs, is covered by health insurance coverage. Certain insurance companies have a cap on a number of treatment-related expenses, including lodging. To determine which plan best meets your needs, you can examine several policies and choose one with a sub-limit on the cost of hospital rooms. By considering this aspect, you can make sure that your hospital stay will be comfortable for you.