How to choose a suitable health insurance policy

It is essential to choose the right cover while buying a health insurance policy. The rising healthcare cost can burn a serious hole in a person’s pocket especially in times of crisis. Thus health insurance should cover should maximum benefits. Money9 Helpline hosted Ashish Yadav, Product Head, ManipalCigna Health Insurance, to help our viewers understand how to calculate the right cover for health insurance.

Here are few queries:

Niel Joshi, Pune: We are a family of four and have a family floater health plan worth Rs 11 lakh. I am 24 years old and have no other insurance coverage. Do I need to purchase a separate insurance policy?

Yadav: The family floater plan of Rs 11 lakh is good, but keeping Covid-19 in mind, we have to consider the peaking healthcare expenditure. The pandemic has taught us that hospital treatment these days is very costly. Around lakhs of rupees are charged these days for a day’s hospitalization. Keeping all this in mind the cover you have is still not sufficient. You should definitely look at increasing your cover.

Shekhar Salunke: I am from Pune. My age is 34 years. We have two children. Our company is providing Rs 3 lakh medi-claim for all family (Bajaj Allianz 10 % co-pay) Also I have a 5 lakh family floater (care medi-claim) is this sufficient

Yadav: The sum insurance is not sufficient. If this is your base plan it is still very less.  I suggest you take a top-up plan of Rs 25 to Rs 30 lakh. Or you can also transfer your floater plan into a Rs 50 lakh premium policy, which you can get at affordable rates.

Ranjit Patel, Mumbai: I have a health insurance policy with a sum assured of Rs 10 lakh. I had Corona Kavach policy which helped during my hospitalisation in January 2021. Should I go for a super top-up of Rs 9 lakh or go for any other health policy?

Yadav: IRDAI’s Corona Kavach is a good policy. You should definitely upgrade your plan. You have two options one is to take a super top-up with the existing plan and make it a premium combination of Rs 50 lakh. Another option is ‘portability’ i.e. to migrate the policy into one single policy which has comprehensive coverage and maximum benefits at the same premium.