The rising healthcare cost in India can wipe out one's savings overnight if one lacks a health insurance policy. Tall medical bills and long-lasting medical procedures can create financial woes for you without health insurance. While health insurance eliminates your financial misery when faced with a medical emergency, getting it for an affordable premium should be your priority. Planning your health insurance premiums early is one of the wisest investment decisions you can make to safeguard your health and financial well-being.
What will help you is the numerous online portals such as Paytm Insurance, where you can compare and get the best health insurance policy at the lowest premium. While that holds, planning for an affordable premium can also be done through the below-mentioned measures.
Calculate Your Premiums First
The first step is calculating the premiums you would have to pay on a particular amount of coverage. This isn't difficult since almost all service providers have a health insurance premium calculator designed to help individuals accurately calculate the premium.
They would pay for a specific health cover from that particular online health insurance service provider. However, using multiple premium calculators across various service providers to compare health insurance plans to get the best possible premium for the same amount of coverage is wise.
Save up by Controlling Unwanted Spending
Even though it's OK to go out for a movie or dinner once in a while with your family, it's wise to keep a check on how much you are spending every month and rather save that money. It's a good financial practice that will not only allow you to pay your premiums on time without straining your wallet but also help you save up for any deductibles in health insurance you may have as part of the coverage in case you opt for one.
For the uninitiated, a deductible is an amount you need to pay from your pocket before the insurance coverage kicks in, and some of you may want to opt for it to lower your premium. However, choose the deductible amount carefully, as that will ultimately decide your coverage.
Pick a Plan That Works for You
Choosing a plan that's affordable and high on benefits is a great way to keep your premium within an acceptable range. For example, if you are married, choosing a family floater health insurance plan instead of individual plans for each member can help you save on premiums since you won't have to bear the cost of paying multiple monthly premiums.
If you are single, choosing an individual health plan will get you higher coverage at lower premiums, provided you opt for health insurance early on in life.
Read more - Cost of a 10-Lakh Health Insurance Plan for a Family of Four
Plan Early
The sooner you get coverage, the better. You should get yourself covered under a health insurance plan early on as it will get you the best possible coverage at the lowest premiums. The more you delay, and as you age, you will have to pay a significantly higher premium for the same amount of coverage.
Starting early will get you the best premiums but also helps you accumulate bonus coverage each year if you don't use the health coverage. The scope for falling sick is far less when you're sick. If that remains the case with you, you could accumulate a high bonus, raising your overall coverage amount immensely without having to pay extra. Now that we have covered a few tips to help you plan your insurance premiums well. Let's look at a few health insurance benefits!
Cashless Hospitalisation Tops the List
A health insurance coverage provides cashless hospitalisation across its network of hospitals. Cashless health insurance benefits include room rent, nursing charges, doctor's and surgeon's fees, medicine, blood tests, diagnostics, etc., up to the sum assured.
In case someone gets admitted to a hospital that is not part of the insurance service provider's hospital network, they can get the amount reimbursed by submitting the bills.
Coverage for Day Care Procedures
Generally, health insurance coverage kicks in only in case of 24 hours of hospitalization; however, due to advancements in medicine, many treatments no longer require extensive hospitalization and can be carried out within a few hours.
Many of these treatment options are covered under daycare procedures across insurance service providers. There are also options to get health insurance with OPD cover to meet your regular health check-up expenses.
Critical Illness Coverage
This is available as an add-on over a regular health insurance plan or an altogether separate policy. It provides a lump sum in case the individual suffers from a critical illness. This critical illness insurance coverage can be used to meet additional expenses incurred on the treatment, daily expenses, etc.
It's a huge benefit since an individual with a critical illness requires extensive hospitalisation and sometimes months of rest before fully recovering. The money can help take care of expenses while the individual recovers.
Read more- Here are the Top 7 Deadliest Diseases/Critical Illnesses of 2022
Access to the Best Hospitals
Health insurance providers often have some of the best healthcare providers in their hospital network. This helps individuals gain access to the best hospitals and the best possible treatment without having to spend anything from their pocket, as the coverage takes care of the hospitalization up to the sum assured.
Conclusion
Getting a health insurance policy is an absolute must, and so is planning your premiums well in advance. It's one of the best investment decisions to safeguard your family's financial future as healthcare continues to grow costlier each year, putting treatment options out of reach unless one digs into their financial savings.
So, if you still don't have insurance, it's high time you start planning right away and get yourself and your family insured at the earliest for a better and healthier future.
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