If there is anything positive that can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is its role in promoting awareness of having a good health insurance policy. Yet, many still fail to look beyond the factors like accident coverage and the payment terms of their health insurance. A 2023 survey confirms this gap – nearly 68% of respondents had alarmingly insufficient coverage, which is likely a result of poor assessment of the options available.
What factors should be assessed when choosing a health insurance plan?
- Coverage and premiums: Individuals should thoughtfully assess if the amount they’re paying as premiums is justified, considering the support they’d get in case of hospitalisation.
- Claims settlement ratio: A higher claim settlement ratio sheds means that the insurer is more likely to respond positively to claims.
- Financial strength of the insurer: Financially strong Insurers are more likely to meet your full needs.
- Room Rent: The type of hospital room covered for the insured during hospitalization.
- The no-claim bonus: It is a reward for not making any claims during the policy term. It increases the sum insured at renewal.
- Recharge of the SI: RSI allows restoring the full sum insured during the policy year if it gets exhausted due to claims.
- The pre-existing diseases (PED) waiting period: It implies that the insured can only file a claim and get assistance for their PED after the waiting period.
- Co-payment policy: A “no co-payment” policy means the insurer pays 100% of eligible claims, so the insured doesn’t have to make payments out of pocket.
- Rewards: Health and wellness rewards like premium discounts are sometimes given to the insured for completing health check-ups. This incentivizes healthy behaviors.
- Ambulance coverage: It refers to the monetary assistance that the insurer would provide for an ambulance facility per hospitalization.
Platforms like 1 Finance have introduced innovative tools to help people find the best health insurance plan for themselves.
The Scoring and Ranking Tool:
This feature is the result of thorough market research and analysis of different health insurance policies along with their standard and additional benefits. Each health insurance policy is assigned a score on a 0-100 scale based on weighted averages of price, features, and claims handling. Higher scores indicate better plans.
What information does the Scoring and Ranking feature require?
1. Gender
2. Number of insured people in the family
3. The age range of the eldest insured member
The tool assesses various factors listed earlier in this article, such as room rent, NCB, RSI, PED, etc. Individuals can even shortlist and compare health insurance plans to gain an understanding of the options available to them.
Commission Analyser:
Premiums paid on insurance policies are usually inclusive of commissions. The commission can result in a lower maturity amount to premium amount ratio and can sometimes even be the reason why an agent promotes an insurance policy. The commission analyser, such as that provided by 1 Finance, estimates the commission that the insured would’ve paid till the current date. It’s important to note that the output generated by the commission analyser isn’t specific to a particular policy, but rather is a generalized estimation.
Conclusion:
These tools remove the need for individuals to spend countless hours reading the fine print and switching between websites during the search for their ideal health insurance plan. The Scoring and Ranking feature allows individuals to easily filter plans by the highest score to identify the best options suited to their budget, health profile, and priorities. Likewise, the commission analyser helps individuals get an estimate of how much they’ve paid as commission on their insurance policy. Together, these tools help people understand the true cost of their insurance and help them assess if the price they’re paying is justified.