Best Health Insurance Plans

The harsh truth of life is that no matter how healthy or active you are, you will require medical treatment or a doctor’s attention at some point in your life.

However, even routine medical tests can sum up to a significant amount of money today. These expenses can be hard to cover on a routine income. In extreme cases, you may be forced to use up your savings, meant for other goals, on hospital bills.

Moreover, illnesses are no longer limited to the older generations. The increasing pollution levels, dependency on processed food, and a sedentary lifestyle have led to various kinds of illnesses and lifestyle diseases in people of all ages.

Thankfully, the best health insurance policies can save you from the financial burden of a loved one falling ill. At a time when you or your loved ones need love and care, you can focus on their or your own recovery and rely on your health insurance provider to take care of the cost of medical treatment.

To ensure adequate coverage and support when required, choose a mediclaim policy carefully. Therefore, it is advisable to compare health insurance to choose the best health policy option available.

Health insurance plans are available under various categories. Understanding the different types of mediclaim policies available will help you choose the best health insurance plan for your insurance needs.

Here are the various types of health insurance plans you can buy for your family and yourself:

Individual health insurance plan: An individual health insurance plan is the best mediclaim policy to insure a single person. It provides extensive coverage to the insured for a reasonable policy premium. If you are still young, unmarried, and your parents and other family members are not dependent on you, the individual health insurance plan is a good option.

**With Tata AIG, you can enjoy several benefits on your individual mediclaim policy, such as COVID-19 cover, cashless treatment at network hospitals, income tax benefits, coverage for pre and post-hospitalisation and much more. To know more about our individual health insurance plan, click here.

Family floater health insurance plan: If you have other dependent family members, like a spouse, dependent children, or dependent parents, buying an individual health plan for each family member can be an expensive and cumbersome task. Instead, you can buy a family floater health insurance plan to cover your entire family in a single medical insurance plan.

**Under a family floater health insurance plan, you need not pay separate policy premiums to get coverage for all individual family members. You get a single sum insured, which is shared by all the insured family members for a single premium.

**With the Tata AIG family health insurance plan, you can buy a health plan through a quick, paperless procedure and enjoy discounts based on the number of family members insured and policy duration. To know more about our family floater health insurance plan, click here.

Senior citizen health insurance plan: The senior citizen health insurance plan is the best health insurance plan for parents above 60. It offers comprehensive coverage for several health issues, including age-related diseases and ailments.

With Tata AIG, you can buy a senior citizen health insurance plan for your parents or parents-in-law who are above the age of 60 and provide them with a host of benefits like daycare benefits, AYUSH benefits, health check-up coverage, and more. To know more about our senior citizen health insurance plan, click here.

Critical illness health insurance plan: A basic health insurance plan does not cover critical illnesses like cancer, paralysis, kidney failure, blindness, and cardiac stroke. If you seek coverage for such grave medical conditions, you can opt for a critical illness medical insurance plan. To know more about our critical illness health insurance plan, click here.

Top-up health insurance plan: It may happen that you exceed the claim limit of your basic health insurance plan. In such a situation, a top-up or a super top-up health insurance plan helps you get coverage over the maximum limit of your basic mediclaim policy.

With our Tata AIG super top-up plan, Medicare Plus, you get premium benefits such as life-long renewals, consumable benefits, cumulative no-claim bonus, and much more. To know more about our top-up health insurance plans, click here.

Along with these most popular health insurance categories, you can get additional plans like the Tata AIG Personal Accident Insurance Policy and Coronavirus Health Insurance.

Not all mediclaim policies are the same. Some stand out from the others by providing lucrative benefits to the policyholders, such as:**

Cashless treatment: The best health insurance plans offer a cashless treatment facility to the insured. With this facility, you can get healthcare services from the insurer’s network hospitals without paying the bills from your side. For example, with Tata AIG health insurance plans, you can get quality treatment at any of our 8000+ network hospitals without shelling out any money from your pocket.

Daily allowance: Some top medical insurance plans, like the Tata AIG health insurance plans, offer a daily allowance to the insured when they are hospitalised. This daily allowance supports you with the cost of medicines and other health-related expenses when you are admitted to a hospital. The daily allowance is over and above the sum insured, and its amount and duration may vary per the policy schedule.

Tax benefits: Understanding your health insurance tax benefits is a key component of how you can save on taxes. It is a built-in feature among the best medical insurance plans. As per the provisions of Section 80D of the Income Tax Ac, 1961, you can claim a tax deduction on the premium paid for a health insurance plan for yourself, your spouse, your dependent children, or your dependent parents. You can claim a total of up to ₹1,00,000 for a plan for yourself, your spouse, dependent children, or dependent parents, depending on the ages of all insured persons.

Additional benefits: The best health insurance plans aim at providing the best possible coverage to the insured. Therefore, they provide several additional benefits and features to their health insurance policyholders. These include benefits like no-claim bonus, top-up facility, AYUSH benefits, coverage for health check-ups, and policy discounts. With Tata AIG, you can enjoy all these benefits on your mediclaim policy.

A basic health policy may provide enough coverage to protect you and your loved ones against some medical conditions. To ensure expansive coverage under a mediclaim policy, you can add certain insurance riders to your policy. Before selecting a mediclaim plan, check if these riders are available with the health insurance plan. Check below for some popular add-ons you may want with your health plan to ensure you do not fall short of financial support in your difficult times.

Accidental death benefit cover: A health insurance plan covers the cost of medical treatment and other healthcare services. Adding an accidental death benefit ensures that the insured individual’s family is not left without financial support in case of his accidental death. This cover is especially important for the breadwinners in a family.

Outpatient treatment cover: Several health issues may not require hospitalisation. Medical procedures like dialysis, chemotherapy, cataract surgery, and several medical check-ups and diagnostic tests require only a few hours, and the patient can go home the same day after the procedure or check-up. An outpatient treatment cover, also known as daycare procedure cover, provides coverage for such check-ups, tests, and procedures that do not require hospitalisation.

Vaccination cover: Timely vaccination protects children as well as adults against deadly diseases, including the Coronavirus disease. The cost of these vaccines can be very high. A vaccination cover helps you cover the cost of immunisations without disturbing your budget.

Consumable expenses cover: Several single-use consumables, such as gloves, syringes, masks, etc., are required when a person undergoes surgery or has to stay in the hospital for several days. The cost of these consumables is usually not covered in a regular health insurance plan. Therefore, you can consider an insurance plan that provides the option to add a consumable expenses add-on to cover these expenses.

Bariatric surgery cover: Bariatric surgery is a life-saving procedure that can save a patient from obesity-related medical conditions such as diabetes and cardiac issues. However, bariatric surgery is usually considered a cosmetic procedure and is not covered under a regular mediclaim policy. An individual likely to undergo this treatment at some point can add a bariatric surgery cover to a regular health plan to cover its costs in the future.

Emergency air ambulance cover: Time is of utmost importance during a medical emergency. An emergency air ambulance cover can help you get airlifted from a remote area to be transported to a medical facility during such critical times.

Similar to buying any essential product or service, it is a good practice to compare various health insurance plans available to select the best health insurance in India. It helps you select the best option that matches your requirement and budget. Here are a few points to keep in mind when comparing medical insurance plans:**

Provide accurate details: Provide accurate and true details in the policy proposal form. The insurer will be able to assess your insurance needs accurately and provide you with an ideal policy offer only if they know your accurate medical condition and history. This way, you can compare genuine health plan costs, which will not vary much when you buy the policy.

Consider factors that affect health insurance premium: Several factors affect your health insurance policy premium, like your age, medical history, location, nature of employment, lifestyle, etc. These factors may vary for different insurers. Understand the factors that will affect the health plan of your choice to ensure you do not have to pay an unnecessarily high policy premium due to them.

Go through the reviews: An advantage of buying online health insurance is that you can go through the reviews of existing customers regarding the insurer’s services, products, claim procedures, customer support unit, etc. These reviews give a clear picture of the insurer’s performance and help you make an informed decision.

Carefully read the policy inclusions and exclusions: It is essential to understand what a health policy covers and does not cover. It will save you from unpleasant surprises at the time of claim settlement. Additionally, you can choose a health policy that provides you with the desirable coverage, and you end up paying for what you really want.

Every individual has a different health condition and medical history. Thus, the medical insurance requirements for every person are different. Similarly, no two medical insurance plans are the same. Hence, it is essential to check a few crucial factors before choosing a health insurance policy so that you can zero down on the best option available for your insurance needs within your budget.

The sum insured amount: The purpose of a medical insurance plan is to provide financial assistance for your healthcare expenses. This financial assistance is in the form of the policy sum insured. The sum insured is the amount you can claim against your health plan for medical and healthcare expenses.

It is necessary that the sum insured should be adequate enough to cover these expenses, keeping in mind the medical inflation. However, you must also remember that the policy premium depends on the sum insured. While a low sum insured can leave you grappling for funds, an unreasonably high sum insured can result in unnecessarily high policy premiums. So, when you choose a medical plan, ensure that the plan offers a reasonable sum insured.

Coverage flexibility: When you are young and hail and hearty, you may not require extensive medical support. But as you progress in life, you may require increased healthcare and medical services. Moreover, the cost of these services is likely to rise every year.

In such situations, the sum insured you opted for at the time of policy purchase may not be sufficient after a few years. You may consider a plan that offers coverage flexibility and the option to increase the sum insured with time.

With Tata AIG, if you do not file a claim during the policy year, you get rewarded with a no-claim bonus. This bonus helps you get a higher sum insured at the time of policy renewal. You can also enhance the insured amount with our top-up plans.

Coverage type: As discussed earlier, you can choose from several types of health insurance plans, such as individual mediclaim policy, family floater plan, senior citizen plan, etc. All these plans have unique features and benefits and are suitable for different types of medical insurance requirements.

Before choosing a health plan, consider the type of health insurance policy that satisfies your insurance needs. For example, if you are a newlywed woman, you may want a plan that covers maternity benefits. Or, if you are over 60, you may prefer a senior citizen plan which has wide coverage, including coverage for age-related medical conditions. Choose a health insurance plan that aligns with your medical requirements.

Pre-existing disease waiting period: Pre-existing diseases are diseases that the insured has before purchasing the medical insurance plan. Every insurance provider has different terms and conditions for pre-existing diseases. In most cases, the insured needs to pass a waiting period before they can file a claim against pre-existing medical conditions. This waiting period can range between 2 to 5 years.

Additionally, most mediclaim policies have an initial waiting period, before which you cannot file a claim, except in the case of an accident.

Choose a plan for the initial and pre-existing disease waiting periods and choose a policy that has a lesser waiting period.

The maximum policy renewal age: Every health insurance plan has a maximum age until which you can keep renewing your insurance policy. This age is 65 for most health insurance plans. However, with some plans, you can get a life-long renewal option with the health plan. You can choose the plan with the renewal policy based on your individual and family medical history and your health conditions.

Cashless hospitalisation: If you get treatment from the insurer’s network hospitals, you can use a cashless treatment facility, where you need not pay anything for the treatment from your pocket and the insurer and the hospital settle the bills between themselves. Check the list of network hospitals from the insurer to ensure there are sufficient approachable network hospitals nearby so that you do not have to run around collecting and submitting documents for claim reimbursement.

At Tata aiG, we have a strong network of 8000+ network hospitals across the country, where you can get cashless treatment for covered medical conditions.

Claim settlement ratio: The claim settlement ratio is the ratio of claims settled by an insurer to the claim filed in the given financial year. A high claim settlement ratio indicates that the insurer has a track record of settling a higher number of claims and has fewer claim rejections. It increases the probability of claim settlement when you file for a health insurance claim.

Look for an insurer with a high claim settlement ratio to improve the chances of getting your claim passed. Additionally, ensure that you file a timely claim, submit all necessary documents, and follow the claim filing process correctly to increase your claim settlement chances.

Claim settlement process: Not only the claim settlement ratio but the claim settlement process is also equally important. Understand the cashless and reimbursement claim settlement process and opt for an insurer with a smooth and hassle-free claim settlement process. Also, ensure there is an online claim initiation process available for smoother processing.

Policy premium: The premium plays a pivotal role while selecting a health insurance plan. Before you choose a health policy, compare different plans, their features, and costs. Instead of looking for a low premium, look for a cost-effective premium that offers adequate coverage. Do a comparative study of the features versus the cost, and then pick a plan.

Policy inclusions, exclusions, and riders: As stated before, understand the extent of coverage of a health plan before purchasing it. Also, consider what the policy does not cover to ensure you do not miss out on any crucial aspect. Go through the add-ons available with the insurer to check if there are suitable riders available or not.

With Tata AIG, you can enjoy a wide range of benefits of health insurance with your health insurance plans especially curated to provide maximum coverage to our customers. You can choose the most suitable plan from the bouquet of our health insurance policies and ensure the best protection for your loved ones and yourself.