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Top Health Insurance Policies in India for 2016

 

Insurance companies are constantly finding new ways to make people aware about health insurance and its benefits. However it seems that people have been noticing only the tax-saving feature of insurance. Substantial credit should be given to this aspect as people have at least started buying health policies. But it is sad enough to realize that still only 0.16 per cent Indians have health insurance.

Various kinds of health insurance policies with different types of coverage are available in the Indian market. This is to facilitate people to buy a policy as per their need. However, the hectic routine leaves no time to check the details of each and every plan. Here we have picked the best health insurance plans for you to choose from. The selection of insurance policies is based on the past performances of their respective insurance companies so that half of your job, that is finding the best insurance companies and best health insurance plans, is done and you are left with only choosing the policy on the basis of their features and your requirements.

Top five health insurance plans

You can buy either an individual health policy or a family floater plan or both. The article below describes the features of individual health plans as well as the family floater plans of the best insurance companies of India. Let us have a look at various plans and find out the best suiting option for you.

Apollo Munich's Easy Health for individual and Easy Health Exclusive for family

Easy health

It comes in two variants i.e. Easy Health Standard and Easy Health Premium. The standard plan comes with option of choosing sum insured from 1 lakh to 5 lakhs. It covers pre and post hospitalization expenses, day care procedures, domiciliary treatments, expenses for organ donor, ambulance service in emergency, health check-up and provides daily cash on choosing shared accommodation and optional critical illness coverage.

If sum insured of up to 5 lakhs is not sufficient, you can go for the premium plan that offers sum insured of 4 lakhs to 50 lakhs. Increased sum insured gives you access to coverage for new-born, additional coverage of maternity expense, recovery benefit, e-opinion for critical illness, dental treatments as well as hearing aids, spectacles and contact lenses.

Easy Health Exclusive

The family floater plan offered by the company is specifically designed for young families. It covers hospitalization i.e. pre and post hospitalization expenses, 144 day-care procedures, domiciliary treatment, daily cash on choosing shared accommodation as well as on accompanying an insured child, expenses for organ donor, emergency ambulance, coverage for new-born and maternity expense, optional coverage for critical illness, health check up and recovery benefit.

If you buy the health insurance from Apollo Munich for duration of 2 years, you get discount of 7.5 per cent.

The waiting period to get coverage for specific diseases like cataract, hernia, surgeries like joint replacement, is 2 years. The coverage for pre-existing diseases, which are specified during the declaration of the policy starts from the 4th year of the policy. Further to this, both the plans come with life-long policy renewal option.

The table below specifies details of the mentioned health insurance policies:

Insurance Company Apollo Munich ICICI Lombard Max Bupa Bajaj Allianz Religare
Name of the plan Easy Health Complete Health- iHealth Plan Heartbeat Health Guard Care
Eligibility 5 years to 65 years 6 years- no maximum entry age No minimum or maximum entry age 18 years to 65 years 91 days – no maximum age limit
Sum insured 1-5 lakhs(standard plan), 4-50 lakhs(premium plan) 10 lakhs and its multiples 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20 or 50 lakhs 1.5 lakhs to 10 lakhs 3-60 lakhs
Pre and post hospitalization expenses Period of 60 days prior to hospitalization and 90 days after hospitalization Period of 30 days prior to hospitalization and 60 days after hospitalization Period of 30 days prior to hospitalization and 60 days post hospitalization Period of 60 days prior to hospitalization and 90 days after hospitalization Period of 30 days prior to hospitalization and 60 days after hospitalization
Day care procedures 144 150 YES 130 170
Domicilliary treatment YES NO YES YES, 10% of sum insured
Daily Cash for shared accommodation YES
Hospital daily cash Yes for accompanying insured child, in premium plan Yes, varies with sum insured amount Offered as rider Rs 500 per day, up to 5 days, when sum insured chosen is up to 4 lakhs
Organ donor expenses YES Yes, up to 50,000 YES YES YES, varies with sum insured amount
Emergency ambulance Yes, up to the limit of Rs 2000 YES, up to the limit of Rs 1500 YES, paid only once YES, up to the limit Rs 1000 Yes, varies with sum insured amount
Health check-up Yes, at the end of 4 claim-free consecutive years YES, coupon for check-up is available annually YES, on annual renewal of the policy YES, pre-policy check-up, check-up at the end of 4 consecutive claim-free years of policy YES, annual
Optional critical illness coverage Yes YES Provided in platinum plan , international treatment coverage   YES
New born coverage and maternity expenses Offered with waiting period in premium plan YES YES NO
Recovery benefit Yes, in premium plan
Dental treatment Offered with waiting period in premium plan Offered with waiting period NO
Spectacles, contact lenses, hearing aid Yes, in premium plan Offered with waiting period NO
Waiting period to cover pre-existing diseases From 4th year of the policy From 5th year of the policy 2 years for platinum and gold plans and 4 years for silver plan From 5th year of the policy  
Life-long policy renewal Yes YES YES YES YES
Sub-limits on room rent Offered to reduce premium Offered No sub-limits in platinum plan NO 1% of sum insured per day if sum insured chosen is up to 4 lakhs
Health line support Offered Access to health videos through Stay Healthy YES, Health Relationship Program YES, Access to various wellness products
Ayush Benefit Yes YES, offered under platinum plan NO  
No-claim bonus YES, cumulative bonus adds 10% for every claim-free years and keeps cumulating till it reaches 100% YES, as cumulative bonus YES, cumulative bonus up to the limit of 50% Depends on chosen sum insured

Figure 1: Comparison of top health insurance policies on the basis of their features

ICICI Lombard's Complete Health Insurance- iHealth Plan

Complete Health Insurance is designed to provide coverage to an individual as well as his/her complete family, if required. In case, an individual buys the policy minimum entry age is 6 years, in case it is required for a family, minimum entry age is 3 months. Sum insured can be chosen up to Rs 10 lakhs or in its multiples.

Similar to Apollo Munich's health plans, policy comes with facility of life-time renewal along with basic facilities like pre and post-hospitalization charges, donor expenses and day-care procedures. No medical check-up is required till the age of 46.

Additional benefits you get with Complete Health Insurance are optional critical illness coverage, option to reduce premium (by accepting sub-limits). If it is taken as family floater plan, you get access to value added services like free health check-ups, online consultation, discount coupons etc.

Waiting period for pre-existing diseases varies with sum insured, which is 2 years for sum insured of more than 3 lakhs. The period increases to 4 years if sum insured chosen is less than 3 lakhs. Policyholders get easy access to health videos that provide tips and advices on various health issues.

Max Bupa's Heart Beat for individual and Heart Beat Family Floater Plan

The plan comes with the option of choosing sum insured from Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs. Heart Beat provides benefits like chemotherapy and radiotherapy along with hospitalization expenses, nursing and ICU charges. There is no age-bar for entry and exit. Also life-time renewals can be made without any changes in the premium. Premium is based on factors like age and location and not on the basis of claim history.

In case you want to avail a family floater plan, Max Bupa offers 4 variants. Among them Heart Beat Family Floater is for nuclear families. In case of a nuclear family with four children or a joint family that is up to 19 members, other variants can be chosen.

Bajaj Allianz's Health Guard for individual and Health Guard Family Floater

Health Guard is a comprehensive plan that provides for every health care need of an individual during hospitalization that arises due to serious illness or accident. Besides providing cashless facility at empanelled network of 4000 hospitals, the coverage is extended to 130 day care procedures. No limit is applied on room rent or ICU charges except for emergency ambulance charges, which is limited to maximum of Rs 1000.

Claim settlement process is easy for every kind of health plan due to the in-house health administration team. It not just settles claim in lesser time but also is a single point of contact for policyholders for their health care related needs.

No medical test is required to avail the policy if the individual is below 45 years in age. In case no claim has been made, 10 per cent of sum insured is given as bonus for each claim-free year, which cumulates and passes on to the next year.

In case you want to cover your family, the entry age for proposer and spouse is 18 to 65 years. Maximum four children can get coverage and age limit for them is restricted to 3 months to 25 years. Rest of the features for family floater remains same with that of an individual plan.

Religare's Care for individual as well as family

Care health plan is complete health insurance solution that you can apply for as an individual or for your entire family. This plan offers cashless treatment at 4600+ hospitals along with daily cash allowance. You can have sum insured from Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 60 lakhs. Pre and post hospitalization charges that is, charges incurred during 30 days prior to hospitalization and 60 days after hospitalization are covered. No limit applies to doctor's fee and other medical charges except to room rent and ICU charges, if the sum insured is less than 5 lakhs. The policy offers free health check-ups annually and second opinion consultation if sum insured chosen is or above Rs 5 lakhs.

All the above mentioned health insurance policies whether individual or family floater, are available for the tenure of two years, if the policyholder applies for it. In case of Care, you have the option to have coverage for the third year also. Unlike other plans, you get consumable allowance for 7 days which initiate from 4th day of hospitalization. As well as companion benefit can be availed if hospitalization exceeds the period of 10 days.

It is not necessary that the above-mentioned plans fulfill all your requirements. They are termed to be the best on the basis of major aspects considered while buying the health insurance plan as well as on the basis of past performances of insurance companies. The suitability of each plan depends on the type of requirement you have as well as the price tag attached with each of them. Besides the coverage, features and the kind of budget you have, you need to consider other factors like customer reviews about the product, quality of service, wellness programs offered under the plan etc.

The above-mentioned specifications are to guide you on best health insurance policies for 2016 as well as the type of plan you should have in your bucket of financial products as tax-saving should not be the only purpose of buying health insurance. The list will not just save your time you need for exhaustive research on each plan, but you will also have a clear idea about the best insurance companies of India.

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