Tips to buy the right health insurance policy

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Buying health insurance should be your first step of financial planning, as it saves your wealth from being eroded due to sudden hospitalisation. It is all the more now important considering nature of diseases has been changing, requiring longer stay in hospitals. Moreover, over the years the health care cost has been rising in the country.

It is therefore important to buy the right insurance policy for the complete protection of your family. Here are a few points to consider before buying a health insurance policy:

Types of insurance policies

There are various types of health insurance plans, ranging from individual, family floater, daily hospitalisation plan, critical illness to disease-specific plans. You need to understand the coverage provided by these policies as they offer different types of coverage. For example, an individual or family floater plan should be your first level of protection as it reimburses the hospitalisation cost. It also covers surgery, daycare and pre and post-hospitalisation costs. A daily hospitalisation plan reimburses a pre-determined amount of daily cash to policyholders with which they can cover costs that are not included in health policies.

Coverage

You also need to read about the policy fine print to know what are the inclusions and exclusions in the policy. For example, many policies have the clause of co-payment and room rent limit, which can reduce your claim settlement amount significantly. By understanding what the policy covers in advance you won’t be surprised about the deductions made from the claim amount.

Sum insured

Your health insurance cover should be decided wisely depending on various factors such as the treatment cost, rising medical inflation, the city you live and your lifestyle.

Exclusions

Pre-existing illnesses are covered in the policy only after 2-4 years of the waiting period. It is, therefore, important to note the waiting period for pre-existing illnesses at the time of buying the policy. There are also time exclusions for certain illnesses like knee replacement that one needs to be aware of before buying the policy.

Last but not the least, check the premium of the policy keeping the coverage they offer. Go for the plan that offers maximum coverage at the lowest premium.