We live in a time where the number of health threats is increasing drastically as each day is passing by. A health emergency can lead to a hole in the person’s pocket and exceed the amount of savings that the person has. In such a situation, health insurance is integral.
We do not want to be dependent on someone for our healthcare expenditures during a time of crisis. Hence, there is an increasing need to be prepared completely for such situations as early as possible.
Before one seeks health insurance, one needs to understand what is health insurance and what benefits it provides.
When one purchases a health insurance plan. It results in an agreement between the insurer and the customer to ensure financial compensation during a particular medical emergency. The terms of the insurance are not restricted to medical emergencies but will cover the costs of regular checkups followed by the visitation to the doctor.
It allows hospitals to provide convenient medical treatments to health insurance policyholders.
When one visits a certified hospital, they will be provided with many benefits, like cashless treatments based on the policies.
The integral benefit of health insurance is when the person is suffering from a health crisis, it allows him to strictly focus on his recovery.
Most people will agree on the benefits of health insurance, as it provides them immense privileges in their time of need.
Health insurance comes up with policies that can cover all the members of the family. The importance of insurance is enormous when someone is responsible for the well-being of his family.
The global covid-19 pandemic presented us with how vulnerable are the elements in our environment. It has even shed light on the importance of health insurance in India.
Life can be cruel and unpredictable at any age. It is important to acknowledge the need for health insurance.
The importance of health insurance is described as follows:
It helps to deal with the fluctuating lifestyle: These days, most individuals are suffering from diseases at a younger age due to a sedentary lifestyle. Heart diseases have become common.
The accelerating pollution levels in the country, the pace of life, and stress with other factors have resulted in unpredictable medical conditions.
The need for medical insurance has become urgent.
This generation is progressively exposed to different kinds of risks. Precautionary measures can be useful but one should not overlook the need for health insurance.
It helps to protect loved ones:
The safety of one’s family is his or her’s topmost priority while one looks for a health insurance plan. It is integral for the family, which consists of financially dependent family members.
A single person’s income for multiple people’s healthcare is unimaginable.
Thus, it becomes essential to analyze the situation carefully and gives the customers a plan to provide them with suitable benefits.
To ensure adequate healthcare support, one must calculate the need for healthcare insurance in life beforehand.
To meet the increasing medical expenditures:
Inflation is rising significantly. The cost of getting quality medical treatment has become expensive over the last few years.
Along with this, the number of people suffering from different kinds of diseases has increased. The number of people suffering from critical illness has become huge.
We are vulnerable to this harsh reality.
Health insurance helps with medical inflation. When one visits a doctor, there are different charges from consultation to medicine, from renting a room to other miscellaneous expenditures. In such a scenario, one can easily take control of the situation if he has proper health insurance.
It helps the clients to protect their savings:
Mental and physical stress is accelerated by sudden illness. If one is not financially equipped to take control of the situation, it will add to their burden immensely.
Insufficient healthcare funds should not deprive a person to receive reliable healthcare services.
Health insurance helps to protect savings and aid in the customer’s recovery. It prevents the depletion of one’s savings. He can hold his savings and use them for other expenditures such as purchasing a house, funding his children’s education, and more.
The characteristic of suitable health insurance:
There are various kinds of benefits provided by health insurance policies. It may imply different things to people with varying features. The additional benefits provided by the insurance are :
Insurance Coverage:
It is one of the primary functions of a health insurance policy. Many people are not aware of the benefits provided by such policies. Most insurers provide the privilege of cashless treatment that allows the customers to receive medical treatment without paying additional.
The expenses are directly settled between the hospital and the insurance company.
Moreover, the insurer will reimburse the amount paid by the policyholder. The scope and importance of healthcare insurance also cover regular health checkups, transportation charges, and other costs.
Additional Cover:
Most corporate companies have realized the importance of health insurance in today’s world. They have initiated group health plans, which cover all the employees.
But, this does not cut off the need for a regular healthcare plan for an individual. The group plan covers many people under the scheme and may not provide enough to fulfill a single person’s requirement completely.
In addition, an individual health plan for the client and his family allows the advantage to opt for various schemes in a plan.
Multiple options to meet the need of the clients:
The importance of health insurance can be varied in each person’s life based on their medical conditions. If someone is exposed to a more harmful environment or has a medical condition, they can opt for a plan that is structured to accommodate it.
Some of the common benefits provided are an accidental death benefit, critical illness benefits,
Tax Benefits:
The thoughts of the future should not imply that one has to comprise with his present. The Government of India has realized the importance of health insurance and has extended certain tax deductions to purchase a healthcare plan.
There are different sections in the Income Tax Act that one can refer to understand the tax deductions. However, it should be kept in mind that the tax deductions are subject to change.
How to choose suitable health insurance plans in India?
Despite understanding the importance of health insurance plans in India, it is one of the neglected types of insurance as it does not provide any benefits unless one falls sick.
There are multiple health insurance plans in India. So, people need to access the situation and choose the correct healthcare plan.
The different points that should be taken care of are:
To look for the right coverage:
One must select a health care plan that secures the customer against diverse medical problems and provides benefits pre and post-hospitalization.
If you are purchasing a healthcare plan for your family, it must be ensured that all the needs of the family members are met.
It should be kept affordable:
It is integral to purchase a healthcare plan that meets all the needs of the customers. It must suit the pocket as well. Budget is an integral aspect that should be considered while purchasing a health care plan.
Customers should focus on purchasing a reasonably priced healthcare plan while ensuring that the premiums are affordable.
With time, the users can even review the plan and increase appropriately with the surge in income.
Choosing a plan with lifetime renewability:
One must look for the years that the healthcare plans will cover the users and understand if the plans provide limited renewability or not. Healthcare plans are usually required during the later stages of life, so one must select plans that will ensure renewability.
High claim settlement ratio:
The claim settlement ratio is defined as the number of claims that are settled by the insurance provider over the total claims received by the insurer. One should always choose an insurer that has a high claim settlement ratio.
Network healthcare coverage:
Once the client has selected a list of healthcare plans, they must check if the chosen healthcare insurance covers the preferred doctors and hospitals under the policy. One should always choose an insurer that has a high network of hospitals across the world.
Solvency ratio:
When life insurance is purchased, the insurer promises to pay a predetermined amount to users if an unwanted circumstance occurs. The solvency ratio calculates the insurance company’s cash flow compared o the amount it owes as total life cover.
A higher ratio will imply higher assets to the liability ratio.
Top 10 Best Health Insurance Companies in 2023:
1. IFFCO Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd:
Solvency ratio: 1.73
Incurred Claim ratio: 99.49
IFFCO Tokio is the leading General Insurance Company in India. The company was incorporated in India in 2000. It is a joint organization between Tokio Marine, Indian farmers fertilizer Cooperative, and Niccido Fire Group.
The office is situated in Gurugram, Haryana.
The joint venture comprises 51 percent holdings of IFFCO and 49 percent holdings of Tokio marine group.
It deals with health insurance, car insurance, travel insurance plans, and other services.
The company continued to be an active part of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, which provides insurance coverage to farmers for all their crops.
The initiative has been taken by the state governments against the loss due to the failure of crops due to adverse conditions and post-harvest losses.
The company did very well amidst the covid-19 pandemic, which was a difficult year for the insurance sector.
IFFCO Tokio General Insurance Company is an unlisted public exchange company and is listed as a company limited by shares.
The comprehensive policies by the company are based on international rates, optimize the premium outflows of the clients and offer a one-stop option to cover all the risks.
It is the first private sector health insurance company that established Bima Kendras to increase the penetration of insurance coverage in rural areas.
2. Raheja QBE General Insurance Co. Ltd:
Incurred Claim Ratio: 97.22
Solvency Ratio: 3.66
One of the top private insurance providers in India’s general insurance sector is Raheja QBE General Insurance Co. Ltd. Raheja QBE is a partnership between the Rajan Raheja Group and QBE Insurance, the second-largest international insurer in Australia.
Raheja QBE was founded to support and foster the best environment possible for customers and business partners in the insurance industry.
Rajan Raheja Group and QBE Insurance each contribute their considerable experience in numerous business sectors in India, and when combined, they produce creative insurance solutions for a range of customers.
Health insurance, house insurance, private vehicle insurance, two-wheeler insurance, etc., are all provided by the company.
Raheja QBE collaborates internally and externally to ensure the delivery of highly adaptable insurance solutions to the users so that they can adapt to the complexities in the environment.
It is the largest source of cashless networks and provides a wide range of networks of 5000 plus hospitals and 1300+ garages to opt for cashless services.
The processes taken by the company are simple and kept as hassle-free for the clients as possible. They have adopted complete transparency and have ensured that all the queries and issues are solved quickly and ensure that there are no hidden agendas in the policy.
The policies are centered on the benefits of the customers. Their needs are put before in every case of the transaction to ensure complete satisfaction to the users.
3. Star Health and Allied Insurance Co. Ltd:
Incurred Claim ratio: 94.44
Solvency Ratio: 2.22
The largest independent health insurance provider is Star Health Insurance Company. The first independent health insurance company in India, Star Health Insurance Company, was established in 2006. The Star Health Insurance Company offers services for health, personal injury, and international travel insurance, among other things.
Products from Star Health Insurance Company were created with the needs of the general population in mind. The Star Health and Allied insurance firm offers more than 15 health insurance plans that are suited for a variety of clientele, including senior citizens, families, groups, and so forth.
The key benefits provided by the health insurance company involve protection for individuals and families on a floater basis.
The sum insured for the policy can account for 2 crore INR.
The policies are customer centered followed by an extensive network hospital coverage with 130000+ hospitals. The insurance can be purchased from their social website, thus making the process hassle-free based on the highly innovative digital platform.
The clients don’t have to undergo pre-insurance medical screening procedures.
4. Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd:
Incurred Claim ratio: 93.96
Solvency ratio: 2.22
A reputable general insurance provider, Reliance General Insurance was founded on August 17, 2000. One of the most reputable general insurance firms in India, it is a member of the Reliance Group. The corporation wants to dominate both domestic and international markets by becoming the first choice of clients. With its cutting-edge solutions, which range from Reliance car insurance to health, travel, and other products, it meets a variety of customer needs.
The health insurance company provides solutions to various cases, for example, healthcare, motor, home, travel, and marine sector. They offer different customized plans to meet the needs of the customers.
The main goals of Reliance General insurance limited includes:
To ensure affordable insurance services are available to all the users
To make the operations customer-centric
Protect the policy holders’ interests and increase innovation in product development.
5. Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited:
Incurred Claim ratio: 90.04
Solvency ratio: 1.61
The Future Group and the Generali Group have partnered to create Future Generali Insurance. In India, the business was founded in September 2007. The business offers a variety of insurance products. To meet the demands of a wide range of consumers, Future Generali offers a variety of Future Generali health insurance products, including Personal Accident plans, Critical sickness policies, Hospital Cash, Arogya Sanjeevani policies, Senior Citizen insurance, etc.
The health policy provided by the company referred to as FG Health absolute can ensure the physical and mental well-being of the customers to up to 15 members of the family.
It provides free wellness benefits like health checkups, mental health guidance, daily fitness tracker, and discounts on famous health brands.
It provides enhanced maternity benefits with additional cover for girl children and coverage for newborn babies under the mother’s policy.
They even provide insurance for different health-related problems like infertility treatment and enhanced vaccination for newborn babies.
6. Acko General Insurance Ltd.:
Incurred Claim ratio: 84.64
Solvency ratio: 1.91
India’s first digital health insurance company, Acko General Insurance Limited, is moreover the country’s fastest-growing insurer right now. It is one of the general insurance providers in India. The business, which was established in November 2016, sells insurance products entirely online.
The business provides numerous retail goods, including health insurance, two-wheeler insurance, and auto insurance. The insurance provider provides numerous trustworthy health insurance plans that may be customized to meet individual needs. Customers have the option of choosing cheap, personalized health insurance policies.
The benefits provided by Acko General Insurance Company include: it ensures incredibly low premiums: It provides insurance within a budget
The insurance is super-quick to purchase. The company deals with effortless, easy, and 100 percent digital policy.
All the services can be accessed with a few clicks. It does not require any difficult paperwork.
They result in hassle-free insurance claims. A claim that is filed online can result in a cashless, speedy claim settlement.
7. HDFC ERGO General Insurance Co. Limited:
Incurred Claim Ratio: 79.30
Solvency Ratio: 1.90
HDFC is a joint venture between ERGO International AG and HDFC Ltd. This is the first major general insurer to start offering customized products for both the business and rural markets. One of India’s most reputable and esteemed general insurance firms is HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company. In terms of health insurance, HDFC Ergo General Insurance offers a variety of solutions, including tailored plans for singles, families, seniors, and parents. Additionally, the business provides specially designed solutions for critical illnesses and individual accidents.
The health insurance company has managed to secure over 1.55 crore customers. It offers comprehensive car insurance to a range of health insurance plans. It takes a Customer first Approach.
The company is backed by a strong customer support team and seamless driven claims operation ensuring 360-degree customer happiness.
8. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd.
Incurred Claim ratio: 78
Solvency ratio: 2.90
One of the top general insurance providers in India, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company provides coverage for auto, home, health, and other types of general insurance. With a market share of over 8% in 2021, ICICI Lombard General Insurance is the top-ranked private general insurance firm in India. A wide variety of health insurance products are available from ICICI Lombard General Insurance. The ICICI Lombard General Insurance health insurance policies are designed to give comprehensive coverage and high-level support.
The company assures that it is dependable, backing up the customers in times of any natural calamity. The insurance purchasing process is highly transparent. The insurance products are designed based on highly mathematical models.
It provides the users with pre-sales to claims support.
9. Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Co. Ltd:
Incurred Claim ratio: 77.35
Solvency Ratio: 2.80
The health insurance company is a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company Limited and the Murugappa Group. The business offers a wide range of insurance plans to both its urban and rural clientele. The company’s insurance products include health, engineering, accident, automobile, marine, liability, travel, and rural insurance for its corporate and individual clients.
Cholamandalam General Insurance provides various hospitalization plans, critical illness plans, super top-up plans, and daily benefit plans when it comes to health insurance.
10. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd:
Incurred Claim ratio: 77.31
Solvency ratio: 3.45
One of the well-known health insurance providers, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has a strong ratio of settled claims. It is a partnership between Bajaj Finserv Limited and Allianz SE. One of the many insurance products that Bajaj Allianz General Insurance offers is health insurance. The insurer provides cashless care to the insured under its health insurance plans and has more than 6,500 network hospitals. One can choose from a variety of health insurance options, including maternity insurance, family floater insurance, senior citizen insurance, and individual health insurance policies.
It is one of the leading general insurers in India. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance caters to the needs of the individual and provides various products that go beyond insurance.
Wrap Up:
The health insurance industry is one of the competitive sectors in India. While there is a plethora of health insurance companies in India, it has become integral to choose the right insurance provider that meets all the needs of the customers. For this, thorough research is integrally followed by a comparison of the premium rates along with other factors like claim settlement ratio, a network of hospitals, and transparency in insurance coverage.
Edited by Prakriti Arora
