Health insurance is a necessary investment to be made towards one’s well-being. With a boom in the banking, financial services, and insurance sector, it has become more convenient to select a plan that suits your needs. Health insurance payment options may either be cashless health insurance, or reimbursement health insurance. While the cashless option involves direct payment of the bills by the insurer, the reimbursement option requires you to pay the bills initially. The insurance company repays you later.
While analyzing various health insurance plans or mediclaim policies, here are the top 5 factors you should consider to buy the best mediclaim policy:
- Timing
Your health insurance plan considers several points like previous medical history, current health status, and genetic disorders. Age is also a crucial factor in determining your cover.
Young age will help you pay a lower premium, and lock it in, thereby allowing you to receive coverage within your budget. When you are deciding on a plan, do not wait for ‘The One’. List down your top priorities that you definitely want covered, and based on those, eliminate policies. While doing this, select limited options, and do not enlist all choices under the sun. To further save time, you may buy health insurance online.
- Lifestyle choices
You may extract more benefits from your policy by following a certain way of life. While buying health insurance for yourself, or your family, understand that smoking and drinking may negatively affect your plan. However, following a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise qualify you as an ideal candidate.
You may not realize that your heavy participation in certain sports might affect your policies too. Activities that pose a health risk, like skydiving, surfing, and long-term scuba diving might lead to your insurance firm having second thoughts.
- Hospital network
While considering different insurance plans, ensure that you find out the hospitals the firm is associated with. Although affiliations may change over time, going through them reveals a basic understanding of the type of facilities, and the hospitals where you might redeem the plan.
In order to avail of convenient health insurance, buy mediclaim that has tie-ups with hospitals around your home.
- Existing plan
Although most insurance plans now come with a lifetime validation, you always have the option to upgrade or exit your current policy. Many insurance companies allow for modifications like top-ups, and riders in your existing plan. Riders are individually purchased and provide specific add-on benefits.
- Thorough analysis
Before buying insurance, it is highly recommended to go through the entire policy document. Certain conditions and exclusions may affect the returns, and offset your future plan.
With the help of your financial advisor, or your potential insurance company consultant, understand the plan fully before signing on the dotted line.
Insurance plans are set in place as your safety nets, and must be invested in carefully. Always compare policies, check them against your list of requirements, and consult an advisor before you take the call.
