How do you buy a health insurance plan? If you just settle with the plan your agent sells or are happy knowing you have bought the cheapest plan, there is a bit of unlearning and a lot of learning in store for you. A health insurance policy packs in several features and caveats. To give you a ready comparison, we designed Mint Mediclaim Ratings (MMR), which was developed by SecureNow Insurance Broker Pvt. Ltd. The full ratings along with the methodology can be seen here:http://www.livemint.com/mintmediratings.
In the ratings, for family floater plans, we have considered two sum insured amounts (Rs.10 lakh and Rs.20 lakh) and three age categories in each—eldest insured member is 35, 45 or 65 years old. For individual plans, the age categories are the same but the sum assured is Rs.5 lakh. The newest edition of the ratings (July 2015) also includes individual plans ofRs.5 lakh, Rs.10 lakh and Rs.20 lakh for a person aged 70 years.
This week, we spotlight individual policies with sum assured Rs.5 lakh, where the person is 65 years old.
We also explain some of the important aspects that one should look at while choosing a policy.
Let’s look at sub-limit on room rent. This means that your insurer would have decided the amount that it would pay towards hospital room rent. While some may describe this cap as a percentage of the sum insured, others may describe it as the category of room you would be eligible for. You need to be careful when buying a health insurance plan with sub-limit on room rents because usually other medical expenses are associated to the type of room you take and so you could end up paying the difference for not only the room rent but all other medical costs should you opt for a higher room category than allowed. You would typically find sub-limits on very low ticket size policies, but it’s always advisable to go for a health insurance plan that does not have sub-limits. So, policies with no sub-limits get the highest score.
