Health insurance of Rs 5 lakh: A look at what 9 insurers are offering

Health insurance is one of the priorities of modern life. According to insurance experts every family should have a minimum floater health insurance policy worth Rs 5 lakh. It is better if you are able to raise the cover to Rs 8-10 lakh.

Money9 gives you a comparative study of the cheapest premiums for a floater insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family.

Floater insurance coverage

A family floater is a health insurance plan that extends the coverage to the entire family. Simply put, a floater brings all the members of the family under an umbrella cover.

Being covered under a floater, every family member gets benefits under a larger common pool. Suppose, you go for an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh for your family of four. That means every year all four members are covered up to the sum of Rs 5 lakh maximum.

If the sum is exhausted in a year, then no new claim would be entertained for the rest of the year. Next year you are eligible to make a claim. Floater health insurance has the benefit of tax deduction under section 80D.

Nine premium rates

All the premiums (excluding 18% GST) have been calculated for a 30-year-old married individual. The rates could be different depending on your age, gender, place of residence, pre-existing conditions, cover size and features of the policy or any other terms and condition of your chosen insurer.

1. United India- Rs 5,581

2. New India- Rs 5,791

3. SBI general- Rs 6,088

4. Tata AIG- Rs 6,347

5. Aditya Birla- Rs 6,371

6. Universal Sompo- Rs 6,393

7. National Insurance- Rs 6,486

8. Max Bupa- Rs 6,542

9. Royal Sundaram- Rs 6,560

A necessity

The pandemic has taught us that there is no alternative to health insurance. From home treatment to hospitalisation, health insurance plans cover different types of expenses. There is a thin gap between health insurance and normal Mediclaim policy.

A good health insurance policy would usually cover expenses made towards doctor consultation fees, costs towards medical tests, ambulance charges, hospitalisation costs and even post-hospitalisation recovery costs to a certain extent.

Experts said that a good health insurance plan gives 180-degree coverage of your medical needs, where a Mediclaim policy serves 85% of the total needs. Health insurance should also have cashless facility.