Which Health Insurance should i buy and where should i buy from ?
Hi Experts,
I am in need of your recommendations and views for health insurance for me and my family. So hdfc optima restore/secure and max bupa health reassure are the two plans that was recommended to me by offline & online agents.
Father's age : 57. ( He is diabetic and takes medication for the same and BP too.)
Mother's age : 47. (No PED)
Brother's age : 21. (No PED)
My age : 25. (No PED)
- Which health insurance company and plan would be the best and economical?
- Should I take individual or family floater ? ( Max bupa plan has capped max age to 30 and not 25. )
- Where should i buy from ? Offline or Aggregators or Direct. ( Policy bazaar and max bupa online rep promised to waive off loading charges. This sounded scammy and made me confused if i could trust them and buy online.)
- I live in a tier 3 city. Is 10 lacs SI enough ?
- Should i buy the rider which also covers for consumables? is it worth the extra premium?
- Is there any diff/disadvangtes between paying the premiun upfront for a year vs monthly emi?
Some details i would like to share :
We dont have any exisiting health cover.
I would prefer a company which has an easy claim process and wont create problems if unfortunately i ever need it.
Also willing to wait for 3/4 years for PED cover.
I would also like to thank the creators and contributors of this amazing forum. I have had so much of knowledge from here enabling me to take better decisions for me and family. Thank y'all.
Hey Ankit,
Here is what I think
1) There is no best company or plan. All have some issues hence what you are comfortable. On the two plans that you have selected althogh they are very similar there are few differences - In HDFC Optima Restore there is no cap or sub-limit on any disease. While incase of Re-Assure there is a limit of Rs 1Lac specified for some Robotic Surgeries. Optima Restore does not cover Healthcare-at-Home while in case of Re-Assure Healthcare-at-Home for Chemo & Dialysis is covered. Optima Restore does not cover AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha & Homeopathy) while Re-Assure shall cover it.
2) Prefer taking two seprate policies - i) Parents + Brother ii) Yourself. While you have the option to take a floater policy incase of Re-Assure the policy wording specifies age limit as 30yrs for a Dependent Child. Only if you are dependent on your parents should you consider this. Another advantage I see for taking two seprate policies is in terms of Tax Saving under Sec 80D of I-T Act. Both you & your father will be able to get tax benefit of upto Rs 25000/- seprately.
3) I will skip this question since I sell insurance and I therefore I will have my bias.
4) 10 Lac cover for a tier III city seems fine. Hower since ailments don't know which city do you reside in hence look at buying you super-top of 15-20 Lacs. Buy it from the same company that you are buying your base plan.
5) I would not buy the rider only if it was offereing me cost of consumable. The highlight of the rider is inflation protection which is as per CPI - so at time of renewal suppose CPI was 5.5% an additional 5.5% gets added to the sum insured. There is another benefit that rider offer i.e. incase of claim of upto Rs 50K the cumulative bonus or no-claim bonus will not be reduced.
6) Prefer upfront payment instead of EMI.
Two more things
a) Since your father has history of hypertension please be prepared for loading or an extra premium over and above the premium that you are aware off.
b) Please evaluate taking a 10 Lacs cover for each member i.e. father, mother & brother under a single policy. Since there is significant age gap I think the individual premium might work cheaper.
I hope the response will help you taking an informed decesion. Please do give a thumbs-up to the responses you receive.
Hi Ankit,
First of all congratulations for thinking about insurance for your family. It is a responsible thing to do. Now let me answer your queries in the order they were asked:
Happy to answer any follow-up questions.
Anuj Jindal
Co-founder
SureClaim