The ongoing pandemic is a perfect example to show the need for a good health insurance policy. The cost of treatment during the initial phases was extremely high and forced people to dig into their savings to save the lives of themselves and their loved ones. Having a health insurance plan in such times would have helped them get the right treatment without burning through their savings.
Now that we are a couple of years into the pandemic, a few insurers have curated health plans, especially for coronavirus. Star Health Insurance is one such insurer that offers a plethora of health plans for you to choose from. You can either choose a plan for yourself or your entire family from a trusted insurer.
Types of Policies on Offer
As already mentioned, Star Health Insurance offers a lot of different plans for you to choose from. Based on your requirements and budget, you can choose the right plan. The insurer offers individual health plans, group health plans, family health plans, top-up health plans, cancer health plans, senior citizen health plans and COVID-19 health plans.
Individuals looking to secure their future can opt for the Star MediClassic health plan. As your responsibilities grow in the future, you can add your spouse and kids to the plan as well. Thereby ensuring that the same policy covers everyone in the family. The premium of an individual plan is a bit on the higher side as compared to family floater plans, but it offers a lot more coverage as well.
If you are looking for a plan to cover all members of the family, you can either choose the Star Family Health Optima or the Star Comprehensive Health plan. To make the plan a bit more effective, you can even add critical illness cover as a rider to the plan.
For the ones who already have a health plan but are looking to enhance the sum insured, you can choose the Star Surplus Top-Up insurance plan. The insurer also offers coverage for autistic children.
Important Factors to Consider
When you decide to buy Star Health Insurance, there are a few factors that you must consider. Here are the most important ones:
- Premium
The policy premium for your health insurance plan depends on a variety of factors such as the type of policy that you are looking for and the age of the applicants. A policy for senior citizens will most likely cost you more than that for individuals or a family floater plan.
The policy premium for individuals is slightly higher than family floater plans. If you were to buy a family floater for four members of the family and four individual health plans, the latter would cost you more.
Since the Covid-19 cover is very specific, its policy premiums are relatively lower. The premium of a policy is without any doubt one of the most crucial factors. However, it should not be the sole criterion for buying a policy. Looking for the cheapest policy out there might not be the best idea.
- Sum Insured
Should you choose to buy your health insurance plan from Star Health, you can choose from a wide range of Sum Insured. Starting from INR 1 lakh to INR 1 crore, you can choose the sum insured that offers adequate coverage for you and your loved ones.
Given the fact that medical inflation is quite high in the country and the cost of treatment is constantly on the rise, it is recommended that you opt for a sum insured of at least INR 10 lakhs. This will help you meet the costs of most of the treatment.
- Entry Age
Another factor that you must look at is the entry age of health insurance policies. The entry age for most health insurance plans is 18 years and the maximum entry age is 65 years. Before you buy a policy, it is advisable to check the entry and exit age of the policy.
For instance, if you buy the Star Health Red Carpet plan, the entry age is set at 60 years. Whereas the entry age for Star MediClassic policy is only 5 months. Some of the plans from Star Health Insurance do not have any limits on exit age and you can renew the policies for life.
- Co-payment
While deciding on the right health insurance plan, you must also look at the co-payment clauses of the plan. As per the co-payment clause, you might have to pay a specific amount when you want to claim the policy.
For example, Star Comprehensive Health Insurance requires a co-payment of 30% for policyholders above 60 years. If the final medical bill is INR 1 lakh, you will end up paying INR 30,000 from your pockets for the above example. Similarly, for pre-existing diseases, the co-payment is set at 50%.
- Sub Limits
Sub limit refers to the caps or limits that insurers set on certain reimbursements. The most common example of a sub-limit is that of room rent. Depending on the policy that you choose, there might be a cap on the room rent that you can reimburse.
The Red Carpet Health Insurance for senior citizens has sub-limits for specific diseases. The sub-limits are usually outlined in the policy documents. Make sure that you read them before buying the policy.
- Pre-existing Diseases
It might be a good idea to check the clause for pre-existing diseases and the waiting period for them. Depending on the medical condition, you might have to wait for 2, 3 or 4 years before you can claim your policy for that disease. Star Red Carpet policy covers pre-existing diseases after a waiting period of 2 years. Make sure that your Star health plan covers any pre-existing diseases that you might have.
Read more - Top 9 Reasons to Buy Star Health Insurance Policy Online
Conclusion
Star Health Insurance is one of the leading names in the health insurance space. If you are looking for health insurance with OPD cover or a comprehensive plan, Star might have the right plan for you. There are several plans that you choose either for yourself or your family. And before choosing the plan, the above are some of the factors that you must consider.
Read more - Information About Star Health Insurance Plans that You Must Know
