How to Evaluate for Sufficient Health Insurance Coverage?

Due to changing times and increasing medical costs, health insurance is the need of the hour. But even if you were to get medical insurance, it all boils down to the sum insured you choose for your plan. When you apply for a claim but do not have sufficient coverage, the amount would go from your own pocket. Not only does this put a financial burden on you but also beats the point of having medical insurance. So, let’s understand how much coverage you require when purchasing a plan.

What Does Being Underinsured Mean?

Being underinsured as a policyholder means that you do not have enough security against any unforeseen medical emergency. But there are two ways of being underinsured.

Having Lower Sum Insured

In this case, the sum insured you chose for your policy is lower because you wanted a lower premium or because you hadn’t considered your needs or inflation. But when a medical emergency arises, your policy isn’t able to cover you completely. For example, you bought medical insurance with a sum insured of INR 4 lakhs, which is sufficient for your current needs. But due to inflation, the value of that sum changes in a couple of years and thus, you are left underinsured when the time comes. This leaves you with a financial burden while having insurance.

Having Less Coverage

This is a situation where you have less coverage as the insurance policy doesn’t offer protection for your future requirements. This could be for ailments, treatments, etc. For example, you bought medical insurance without going through the terms and conditions and failed to see the policy doesn’t cover critical illnesses. In the future when you do get diagnosed with a major illness, your policy cannot secure you due to the opted lower coverage.

Ways to Make Sure You aren’t Underinsured

Understand Your Needs

You need to consider your requirements before picking the sum insured amount. So, give it a serious thought and evaluate the potential risks. But ensure that you account for inflation as well as unfortunate mishaps.

Pick a Sufficient Sum Insured

Now that you are aware of your exact medical needs, you can proceed to choose a suitable coverage that secures you. This might mean a higher premium, but it also implies that you won’t have to dip into your life savings.

Ensure You Know the Exclusions

Every insurance plan has a set of exclusions and terms and conditions that you should go through. Only focusing on the benefits and features of the policy can lead to last minute problems while filing claim. And during a time of need your sole backup might go in vain, leaving you without many options.

Choose a Suitable Policy

There are various plans available in the market that can be personalised to match your necessities. Some examples of this are critical illness insurance, family floater plan, health plan for senior citizens, individual policies, etc. Thus, you can get suitable insurance that offers 360-degree cover based on your needs.

Get Professional Help

If you still are in doubt about selecting the sum insured for your medical insurance plan, seek help of a professional. It is very possible that you might not understand everything there is about health insurance and thus, getting expert advice on this can go a long way. So, instead of trusting unreliable sources and picking your coverage based on a hunch, ensure you go to the right source.

You can now get the best insurance policy and have adequate coverage with these tips. But it is advised to compare several plans using online tools like health insurance premium calculator before finalising the policy.