These days, you can buy everything online. Buying a health insurance plan online has also become a hassle-free process.
Medical expenses these days have skyrocketed. So, choosing the best health insurance is a crucial decision that must be taken as soon as possible. In absence of an insurance cover, hospital bills, medical treatments, and treatment costs, can soon add up and eat into your hard-earned savings. Even though people understand the importance of a health insurance plan, many remain unaware about the possibility of buying it online.
Buying online health insurance has been a game changer and simplified the process for many first-time buyers.
But before you embark on the quest to look for a suitable plan online, here are some things you need to keep in mind:
- Choose a plan that offers wide coverage
Never buy an online health insurance in a haste. Use the online tools to explore all options and compare them side by side to get an objective look. Your primary health insurance plan must be affordable and offer expansive coverage. It should also give you the option to expand the coverage with the help of add-on covers, such as critical illness plan, cancer cover, etc.
Since these conditions are increasing at an alarming rate, it is best to incorporate them in your insurance plan. These plans not only provide financial support when diagnosed with a serious illness, but also offer benefits like tax savings, monthly income option, lump-sum pay out, etc.
- Check the inclusions
When you are assessing an online health insurance plan, be sure to check the inclusions, such as outpatient expenses, pre and post hospitalization, illnesses covered, etc. If you have a family history of certain illnesses, be sure to check for those when you are looking to buy insurance.
- Plan sum assured in long run
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Don’t make the rookie mistake of buying an online health insurance with current healthcare costs in mind, especially if you are buying as a young person. In all probability, you will make a claim a decade or two later from now. The general hospitalization costs 20-25 years later will be much higher than what they are today.
Additionally, if you lead an unhealthy lifestyle, you would need to bump up the sum insured cover by at least 20% as you would be at a relatively higher risk. Therefore, your sum assured should account for inflation and be able to pay for your medical costs even if you apply for claim 25 years from now.
- Check the claim settlement ratio
The claim process and claim settlement ratio are crucial aspects for you to consider when buying online health insurance. A claim settlement ratio in the higher 90s would mean that there is a 90% chance of getting your claim settled. For instance, Care Insurance has a claim settlement ratio of 95.2%. It means that the insurer settled more than 95% claims raised in a given year. You must also check for good customer service support so that you get timely help when you need one.
- Survival and waiting period
Health insurance plans, such as cancer insurance, come with survival and waiting periods. The waiting period means the time frame between buying the insurance and diagnosis of the disease. Survival period, on the other hand, means the number of days the insured person survives after they have been diagnosed with a serious disease.
So, before you make the purchase, remember to check the survival period and the waiting period as well as their durations. It is important to know this information because if you are diagnosed with a critical illness within this timeframe, you will not be eligible for claim pay out. Additionally, if the insured person passes away before the end of survival period, they will not be able to receive any benefits.
These days, you can buy everything online. Buying a health insurance plan online has also become a hassle-free process. Just keep all these factors in mind when you are reviewing your options.
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