Tips to Choose Health Insurance for your Family

Want to avail a health insurance plan for your family? Looking for something that is affordable yet offers comprehensive coverage? Do you desire to get the best out of your health care investment?

Undoubtedly, health insurance is an absolute must-have. Every individual wants to buy a health insurance plan with optimum financial coverage that caters to their family’s needs at uncertain times. Nevertheless, with a range of plenty of options and insurers competing in the space, it is likely to get overwhelmed. Therefore, it is important to precisely go through the policy types, their inclusions, exclusions, and features. Here are some crucial tips you can pay attention to while choosing the right health insurance for your family.

#1. Look for the right Coverage: 

Coverage is also known as inclusions are the things your health insurance plan ensures to pay for. As such, it is always advisable to choose the health insurance that provides maximum coverage for a broad range of health issues and expenditures. For example, dental health insurance is a type of health insurance that could cover for your necessary dental treatment expenses. To summarize, an ideal family health insurance policy should cover multiple components like daycare expenses, ambulance charges, pre and post-hospitalization charges, critical illness cover, cashless treatment, maternity benefits, daily hospital cash benefit, in-patient hospitalization, etc.

#2. Choose the plan that meets your family’s needs:

When buying a family health insurance, pay attention to verifying whether the policy meets the needs of every individual in your family or not. Review your family’s medical history and the types of services you need, and then accordingly select the plan that satisfies your requirements. For example, if any one member in your family has a specific kind of problem, so don’t just simply go for a particular health plan such as dental health insurance, diabetic care coverage, or anything like that. Rather opt for plans that offer compensation for all procedures and prescription drugs. Besides this, also focus on the list of network hospitals available and the percentage deductible price that you have to bear at the time of filing the claim.

#3. Look for Flexibility to Add New Family Members

A family health insurance should always offer you the flexibility to allow the seamless addition of new members to the policy. In case of the demise of a senior member or if he/she becomes ineligible for coverage, then other members should be allowed to leverage the benefits of the same plan without having to opt for a separate individual plan.

#4. Check the Waiting Time Period Clause

The time period after which an insurance company ensures to pay you plan benefits after policy purchase is known as the waiting time period. Generally, health insurance policies cover pre-existing ailments and certain treatments only after a specified time period, which ranges somewhere between 2-4 years depending on your plan. So, make sure you review the waiting time duration after which you will be covered for prevailing ailments and select a plan that offers a shorter waiting period.

#5. Check Room Rent Limit

The type of room you will get on hospitalization depends on your plan’s allowable room rent limit. Therefore, it is better to review it beforehand as all your expenses, including treatment cost and doctor’s fee will depend on the type of room you have opted for. If you select a room that has higher rent than the limit covered in your insurance policy, likely you will have to pay the extra charges as the claim would be of a lower amount. Thus, make sure to choose the right room rent limit, however, it is advisable to go for a plan with a higher room rent allowance.

#6. Opt for a Plan that comes with Lifetime Renewability

Many of us tend to ignore this. But it is one of the crucial factors to consider, especially when buying a family health insurance policy. A health plan with lifetime renewability will remain validated for a lifetime. There is no binding age limit. For an instance, if you purchase a health insurance policy with limited renewability only up to 45 years, then once you cross this age you would need to purchase another plan. And probably this would cost you more, as the premium amount increases with increasing age. To save yourself and your family from such hassles, it is wise to go for a health policy with lifetime renewability.

Some additional factors that you must look for before selecting a family health insurance plan are:

  • Exclusions for the claim.
  • No Claim Bonus.
  • Co-payment.
  • Claim settlement Ratio.

Takeaway

A health insurance policy is crucial for every household as it prepares you for financial liabilities that arrive with unexpected illnesses. But availing the right is not easy until you are not aware of health insurance ins and outs. So, pay attention to the aforementioned tips to gain awareness about your plan and then select a perfect plan that fits your family’s needs.