Many Indians seem to be asking these days about India’s best health insurance policy and the long-term benefits of family health insurance.
But while the former question is subject to opinion, since there are quite a few health insurance covers that Indians of all age groups can subscribe to, the latter question has a more straightforward answer. Yes, family medical health insurance is great in the long term for both you and your family members.
This post will seek to answer all your questions regarding the what, why and how a long-term family medical insurance policy can benefit your family’s health needs in the long run.
What is a long-term family Health Insurance policy?
Any health insurance cover for you and your family with a 2 to 3-year tenure can be classified as a long-term best mediclaim policy for the family. A healthcare insurance cover locked for a single year is a standard or regular policy and not a long-term cover. However, many insurance companies can convert regular health insurance covers to long-term health insurance plans on request.
What’s the difference between short and long-term family Health Insurance plans?
The major difference between a short-term and a long-term health insurance plan is tenor. While standard short-term health insurance covers are renewable each year, long-term health insurance plans are renewable after 2 or 3 years.
From a financial standpoint, short-term health insurance policies often have a larger premium than long-term medical insurance plans, which may come with discounted premium payments. It is because insurees commit to paying premiums for a more extended period in long term policies, which, if not claimed, is a massive benefit to the insurance company.
Indians subscribing to a long-term health insurance cover will be able to avoid sudden premium rate revisions. It is not the case in annual healthcare insurance covers, which subjects policyholders to occasional premium rate upward reviews.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India or IRDAI plays a supervisory and regulatory role in the insurance industry. One of their responsibilities is to instruct health insurance companies to provide No-Claim Bonus (NCB) benefits to their customers.
IRDAI ensures that health insurance firms provide long-term family health insurance policyholders with discounted NCB with benefits paid for in several different ways.
For example, a health insurance firm may give a policyholder a bonus for every year that the policyholder does not file a claim on their health insurance cover.
Importance of a long-term Health Insurance policy
Here are a few salient reasons Indians should buy a long-term family health insurance cover.
- Life-saver: A long-term health insurance plan is a life-saver. Imagine having a life-threatening health condition, and your insurance company can ensure that you receive the best healthcare available.
An ambulance will be on the ground to convey you to the emergency wing of a high-quality hospital for immediate attention. You get special treatment when you are on long-term medical insurance coverage.
- Cost saving: With a long-term medical insurance cover, you protect yourself from unforeseen medical expenses. Emergency health concerns can occur at any time and often without warning. However, with a long-term family medical insurance plan, you do not have to worry about the cost implication of medical treatment.
- Tax rebate: Long-term health insurance policies are subject to revision of tax rebates, which is one of the major reasons they are so attractive to many policyholders in India.
- NCB: As mentioned earlier, policyholders of long-term health insurance may receive NCB benefits from their insurers. This benefit may be either in cash or kind depending on several factors, including the insurance firm involved, the health insurance coverage, the policyholder, and the number of years for which no claim was made.
- A way of beating the effects of inflation: A long-term family medical insurance plan ensures that policyholders lock a specific premium sum that is not subject to any upward review.
This policy is a great way to beat the effects of inflation in this regard. Also, claims on long-term health insurance covers relieve the burden of sourcing for funds to offset increasingly high medical expenses.
In India, medical expenses are steadily rising at an alarming rate of approximately 15% each year, making healthcare an expensive business indeed.
Conclusion
India’s best health insurance plan is a long-term medical insurance plan that provides coverage for persons with pre-existing medical conditions.
Typically, policyholders cannot make claims until after the mandatory waiting period. Policyholders with pre-existing health conditions can only claim their family health insurance coverage after the waiting period and not before or during this time.
Long-term family medical insurance plans are suitable for all Indians, including kids, teenagers, young adults, adults, middle-aged, and senior citizens.
