5 Key Features to Look for in Family Health Insurance Plans
Imagine your grandmother is diagnosed with a rare chronic illness and needs to undergo immediate surgical procedures to increase her chances of survival. However, when it comes to paying the hefty bills, your family's health insurance policy has a long waiting period. This not only places a financial burden on the family but also creates an emotional strain for both the patient and their loved ones.
Moreover, with India seeing a 12.8% rise in cancer patients in the last 5 years, along with other rising health concerns, the need for comprehensive health coverage has never been more critical. Therefore, selecting the best family health insurance plan has become essential. In this blog, we will explore key features to consider when choosing the best plan to suit your family’s needs.
5 Key Features to Look for in Family Health Insurance Plans
Picking the best family health insurance plan can be tricky for most people. The additional covers and top-offs to look for, the cost to consider, the claim processing time to note, and other factors can easily confuse you when selecting a plan. To guide you, here are five most important features to look for while choosing a family health insurance:
1. Specific Family Needs
When choosing the best family health insurance, thoroughly estimating your family's health requirements, pre-existing conditions, and medical history is vital. Doing this ensures that your plan fits your needs perfectly without leaving room for unwanted distress in a time of need.
For instance, consider looking for maternity coverage if your family has younger members. If you have older people in your household, having pre-hospitalisation, a low waiting period for chronic illnesses, and broader coverage for diseases is essential. These ensure that the entire family is taken care of, not neglecting the needs of any individual.
2. Insurance Coverage
Health insurance offers varied coverage options for families. Many policies provide pre-hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation coverage as the basic plan, while other benefits, such as maternity or critical illness coverage, may be considered additional. To make a wise choice in policies, pick the ones with the most varied range, suiting your family's medical background and requirements.
Look for basic coverages such as pre and post-hospitalisation, ICU charges, room rent, and other costs for surgical procedures. Also, check if the provider guarantees critical illness coverage for the diseases it lists, such as cancer, heart issues, and kidney failure. Also, check if the coverage aligns with your requirements.
3. Claim Process
One of the most essential features to check for in the policy terms is the claim process and settlement time. While many insurance companies offer a cashless settlement with their network hospitals, the claim processing time may differ for each. Some may provide priority-based settlements, with the higher amounts disbursed first, while others may have faster systems.
Hence, reading online reviews, getting trusted testimonials, and checking the insurance provider's claim settlement ratio to understand the number of claims settled out of the total claims received is essential. A smooth claim settlement eliminates financial burdens and reduces the stress the policyholder takes in emergencies.
4. Waiting Period
However, certain chronic illnesses and diseases are covered by insurance but may have waiting periods, which can pose difficulty in getting the desired treatment at the right time. For instance, people diagnosed with hernia have a waiting period of 1 to 2 years before the financial security net can kick in and save them from skyrocketing expenses.
So, when selecting the best family health insurance, comparing plans to get the lowest waiting period, even for pre-existing conditions, is essential. This is because the family or its members are not financially and physically troubled in emergencies.
5. Renewability
Another feature to look for while selecting health insurance is renewability. Some policies allow an easy renewability feature with unlimited lifetime renewals. However, most other policies might or might not have this feature.
Moreover, renewals are essential since you can easily avoid the outright charges of buying a brand-new insurance policy upon reaching the age limit. Thus, carefully reading the policy terms and proceeding with the best renewability feature is highly recommended.
Conclusion
Getting the right healthcare plan for you and your family may save you a large financial burden. However, if chosen improperly, the same healthcare plan may fail to be a suitable safety net. Critical illness covers, post-hospitalisation and daycare covers, maternity benefits, and waiting periods should all be checked thoroughly before signing a health insurance policy.
