When purchasing health insurance, it is important to check several crucial factors such as the insurer's cashless network of hospitals, exclusions in the policy's coverage, scope of covered medical conditions, renewability of the policy over time, applicable waiting periods before filing claims, whether pre-existing medical conditions are covered, and whether an individual or family floater policy provides the best value. Thoroughly researching these elements helps ensure one selects an appropriate health insurance plan.

1. Check Crucial Factors Before Buying
Life Insurance
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2. Important Factors of Health Insurance
• Cashless Network of Hospitals
• Understand Exclusions in the policy
• Scope of the insurance policy
• Renewability
• Waiting Period
• Pre-existing Diseases
• Individual insurance policy Vs family floater policy
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3. Cashless Network of Hospitals
This refers to the list of hospitals tied up with the insurance company
wherein you need not pay hospitalization expenses at the time of
discharge from hospital. You should always check this list before
choosing an insurer and should always prefer an insurer that has a tie-up
with your preferred hospital.
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4. Understand Exclusions in the policy
Before you buy a health insurance, always read the exclusions of the policy i.e.
features that are not covered under the policy. The exclusions vary as per the
plan you choose. Always read these conditions before you pick any insurance
plan to avoid chaos at the time of claim. Furthermore, you should make it a
point to ask for sample policy wordings so as to get in depth knowledge about
certain definitions, terms and conditions, exclusions and benefits being offered
while comparing different insurance policies offered by other companies.
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5. Scope of the insurance policy
Always check the complete list of ailment/ disease covered under the policy.
Insurance company can reject even your cashless claim if the disease for which the
hospitalization is required, is not covered under the scope of the insurance policy
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6. Renewability
Renewability refers to the maximum age till you can get your insurance
policy renewed and can claim the features and benefits of that policy.
You should always prefer taking a policy that has a lifelong renewability
because old age is the time when you need your policy the most.
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7. Waiting Period
is also known as cooling period. It is a period during which the insurance company
is not liable to pay any claims to the insured. When you sign up for a new health
insurance policy, there is a wait time of 30-90 days (although the wait time is
different for each insurer and each insurance plan). This means when you buy a
health insurance plan, your policy does not get implemented with immediate
effect. You have to wait till the cooling period to apply for any claims. So before you
sign up for a medical/ health insurance plan, always remember to check to waiting
period for your plan.
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8. Pre-existing Diseases
A pre-existing disease refers to any medical condition/ ailment/ disease of an
individual prior to the commencement of the policy. Pre-existing diseases may not
be covered in the first 2-4 years of the policy depending on your age and the nature
of the policy.
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9. Individual insurance policy Vs family floater policy
You must also consider whether you want to buy individual policies for
all family members or a family floater policy for all. In case of a young
nuclear family, it is better to opt for a family floater policy that extents
coverage to two adults and two children. Compared to individual plans,
family floater plans come at a marginally incremental premium.
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