A sound mind and a healthy body are paramount for everyone. With medical expenses steadily increasing day-by-day, it can get expensive to get proper health treatments. It could get worse if you have terminal illnesses or critical illnesses like kidney failure, heart attack etc.
The best way to protect both your health and finance is to get a health insurance plan for your entire family. It will create a peace of mind knowing that you need not have to worry about your whole family’s health expenses.
But before jumping onto a run-of-the-mill health insurance policy, read through the following 10 aspects that make an excellent family health insurance policy.
- Choose the right type of family health insurance policy – There are two types of family health insurance plans in India. You can either buy a Family floater health insurance plan or Individual family health insurance plan. In family floater, an entire sum insured will have to be divided among each family member. For individual family health insurance, each individual will be insured for a particular sum insured. Analyse which type of family insurance policy will better suit your family needs. If your family members are reasonably healthy, you can op for the former. If they are often ravaged with diseases and hospitalisation, you can opt for the latter.
- Types of hospitalisations covered – Your health insurance policy must be capable of covering accident-related and illness-related hospitalisation. These both are the most common health-related reasons for which you will have to expend money. Without either of these two components, a family health insurance policy will not make much sense.
- Critical illness cover – If your family consists of elderly personnel, then a critical illness cover is a must. In the critical illness cover, hospitalisation charges due to cancer, kidney failure heart attack and other such highly critical illnesses will be covered. These type of illnesses would also have a higher hospitalisation cost. Without this cover, your insurance policy would not amount to much use.
- Pandemic coverage – With the world going topsy-turvy over the COVID-19 pandemic, opt for a policy with pandemic coverage. This will reduce the burden on you and the family if you ever get infected. You will also be capable of opting for the right treatment methods without worrying about hospital expenses.
- Maternity benefit cover – If you plan on starting a family down the line, consider a family health insurance policy that comes with maternity benefit and newborn baby cover. It should take care of maternity and infertility related treatments; child delivery; c-sections; medically necessary terminations and newborn baby vaccination expenses.
- Psychiatric illness cover – In this modern era where people with mental illness, stress and trauma are on the rise, medical expenses for psychiatric illness is also a must-have in your health insurance policy. Mental illness can affect anyone despite the age. Hence having this component in your policy coverage is something that you must not overlook.
- Sum insured vs the premium amount – The sum insured amount is the amount for which the insurer will cover you against the premium paid. An ideal policy will have the right balance between the premium and sum-insured. Do not jump into a policy whose premium is less. It might not sufficiently cover your health-related expenses. You can take the help of a health insurance calculator to understand the premium cost for the plan you intend to take.
- Annual Health checkup benefits – As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. Getting annual health checkups will help you be one step ahead in being prepared against any critical illness. This is especially important for your parents. With age, your parents would be more vulnerable to such disease. However, modern lifestyles have also made led to hear-attacks and lifestyle diseases being common among youngsters as well. Hence it is better to be on top of your health statuses every year.
- No co-payment clauses – Co-payment in when insurance companies will only pay a portion of your medical expenses. You will have to bear the rest of the costs. Although the premium in such cases would be lower, sometimes this can backfire. With medical expenses skyrocketing every day, bearing the cost of it, however small, could create a financial fissure in your savings. It is best to opt for insurance companies that do not mandate co-payment.
- Attractive Cumulative Bonus Benefit – Cumulative Bonus is the benefit you get from your insurer for all the years you haven’t filed a claim. Often it would be a bonus amount in your sum insured or a decrease in the premium amount. This would create a good respite for paying premium amounts.