Digitalization has made things easy for us. Even while living amid a pandemic, the online platforms kept the world running at its pace. Whether it is the school classes or the college lectures, students were intact with their studies. The companies started promoting work from home to ensure the safety of the employers. And buying essential items was also not a task as online shopping has been around for a while now.
While the world observed some magnificent changes going around, a surge witnessed in buying the best health insurance plan in the market. The pandemic has created awareness around health. It forced people to remain at home, which led people to practice healthy living. And this ultimately resulted in buying the health insurance policies for them and their loved ones to be financially secure at unfortunate times.
A few years ago, buying health insurance was a completely different scenario from what it appears to be at the current times. The insurance agents used to explain the benefits of a specific plan, but things have now changed for the better. We have insurance aggregators and agents that let people compare the benefits of different health policies at one go. This also helps in suggesting a better policy as per the requirements of a significant individual.
With ease and a few simple steps, you can buy a family health insurance for yourself and your family without requiring any paperwork or spending an entire day at some insurer’s office. While buying health insurance online has increased, one must note a few essential things while investing their money on any policy.
Let us discuss the five key factors to consider buying the best health insurance.
1:- Disclose the Important Information Carefully:
Like buying a plan offline, one must verify the person's essential details to get insured before sharing them with the company. For instance, details like birth date can play a huge role in deciding the premium amount. Similarly, share the data on pre-existing diseases and medical history carefully as this majorly impacts the policy's terms and conditions. So, while you fill out the details sitting in the comfort of your warm home, never hesitate to verify them with your family members. There are chances that you might skip on some details while filling out for your family members. Ask them for the medical reports and share them with the insurance company to get the best-suited policy.
2:- Claim Settlement:
When you check for the best available options for online health insurance, you get a plethora of information. And this might result in creating a lot of confusion as to what to choose and what not. Since the information is easily available online, you must check the insurance company's claim settlement ratio as this depicts their capability to settle claims for a significant percentage of the beneficiaries. And while we are talking about the claim, we again remind you to ensure that there is no variation in the details provided to the hospital and the insurance company as this may lead to a delay in claim settlement.
3:- Compare Capping Clause for Sub-limit on Room Rent:
A lot of health insurance plans possess capping on room rent. This means that the policyholder can claim expenses to that amount only. If the room has a rent above the capping amount, the policyholder must pay for the additional expenses.
Ex: Suppose that the policy that you insured has the limit for the room rent as Rs. 6000/- per day but when the policyholder gets hospitalized, he chooses a room with a rent of Rs. 10,000/- per day, the policyholder will have to pay for the rest of the amount from his pocket.
4:- Check for the Cashless Treatment Facility:
This is one of the most crucial aspects while buying a buy health insurance online. Check whether the insurance company provides a reimbursement facility or cashless treatment. And we suggest you choose one that provides the latter one as a cashless facility will help you with the expenses only compared to the reimbursements that will take a lot of time to show in your bank account. With a cashless facility, the policyholder can avail of the treatment without paying from his savings and can seek treatment from any networked hospital without worrying about the expenses.
5:- Go Through the Terms and Conditions Carefully:
While buying medical insurance online is easy, skipping through various important information always stands a chance. Therefore, you must carefully go through the policy terms and benefits before making the call and investing your money. Keep in mind to thoroughly read about the health insurance plan's inclusions and exclusions to be clear about the expenses.
Also, keep in mind whether you are availing of any tax benefits from paying the premium online. Online purchasers need to ensure that the policy document is generated online and received in the hard copy format.