A health insurance policy in 2021 is no luxury, but a need of the hour. With ailments gripping people, it has become an inevitable part of your financial plan to be prepared for the unexpected medical contingencies that might strike. However, with a plethora of insurance plans that are available at present, it may confuse buyers.
Selecting a health insurance policy involves choosing from the different features, inclusions, terms and navigating around the policy limitations. But often, people end up buying a policy that is either recommended by their friend of family. What may suit them, may not suit you. Hence, you need to research on your own and consider your family’s medical history before finalising on one.
Here are some tips that can help you select a plan when buying health insurance plans for family:
- Checking the policy coverage
First, when you select a policy, you must consider the coverage your policy has on offer. Such policy coverage needs to be compared with the medical coverage requirement of you and your family.
Health insurance plans have various features like pre- and post-hospitalisation cover, cashless benefit, in-patient hospital cover, ambulance charges and many more. You must account for the medical needs of the beneficiaries of the insurance policy and then arrive at a decision to purchase a particular plan depending on the boxes a particular plan checks off. In addition, compare health insurance policies and the coverage they offer as it helps to shortlist a few plans among the myriad alternatives and then finalise on a suitable insurance cover. * Standard T&C Apply
- Ensuring policy’s flexibility
When you upgrade the insurance coverage from an individual plan to include all your family members, you must check if the policy has flexibility in terms of adding new members. As life progresses, you might want to include even your newborn child, thereby ensuring a 360-degree coverage for your entire family. Moreover, if you have included senior members as one of the beneficiaries, ensure that the policy will continue to be available for other beneficiaries even after the demise of such eldest member.
- Verifying policy terms
Next tip in selecting a health insurance plan for family is to verify the policy terms. All health insurance plans specify terms that define the coverage of the policy. A few terms like waiting period and co-payment clause are essential to keep in mind.
Waiting period is that duration for which you need to wait to cover certain ailments which may be already existing or maternity benefits or even specified ailments that the policy specifies. The lower this duration, the better it is since the coverage is available earlier from the policy purchase.
Co-payment is another clause that should be checked since it requires you, the policyholder, to compensate a specified portion of the claim amount. This has a result of increasing the out-of-pocket expenses. Plans with no co-payment or a small portion can be beneficial. *Standard T&C Apply
- Lifetime renewability feature
Lastly, when you compare health insurance policies to finalise upon one, check for the lifetime renewability feature. This policy feature helps to renew your policy year over year thereby ensuring health insurance coverage is available for your entire life.
With these tips to remember, you can ensure adequate and the right coverage using health plans for family. Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. For more details on benefits, exclusions, limitations, terms and conditions, please read sales brochure/policy wording carefully before concluding a sale.
