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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  Product Crack: Max Bupa’s Health@Companion
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Product Crack: Max Bupa’s Health@Companion

You should buy a policy that has no sub-limits unless price is the only deciding factor.

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What is it?

It is an online health insurance policy that offers a premium discount compared with its offline health insurance policy.

What do you get?

A pure health policy, it pays for hospitalization expenses. Expenses such as doctor’s fees, diagnostic tests, medicines, blood transfusion, operation theatre charges, implants, intensive care charges, daycare charges and organ donor charges are covered up to the sum insured amount.

Other expenses such as hospital accommodation charges and pre- and post-hospitalization charges have sub-limits. Hospital accommodation charge, for instance, is limited to 2,000 per day for a sum insured of 2-4 lakh. For a sum insured of 5 lakh, the accommodation cost is 4,000 per day. Pre- and post-hospitalization expenses are also capped at 30,000 for a sum insured of 2 lakh and 1 lakh for a sum insured of 5 lakh. The policy is renewable for lifetime.

Watch out for

If you are over 65 years of age, you will need to share a portion of your hospital bills. This policy has a co-pay clause of at least 20%, so you will have to pay 20% of the claim and the rest will be paid by the insurer. This is a common clause for most health insurance policies for senior citizens.

The in-built hospital cash benefit kicks in only after a continuous hospitalization period of 48 hours and is payable only at the end of the hospitalization period against a discharge summary. The hospital cash is 1,000 per day up to 30 days in a policy year for a sum insured up to 4 lakh. For a sum insured of 5 lakh, this allowance is 2,000.

How do you buy online?

You need to do two steps online—fill up the health insurance or proposal form and pay the premium. If you are below 50 years of age with a healthy medical record, the insurer will email you the policy document immediately. But if you need to undergo medical tests, you will only get an acknowledgement of payment. The policy will come after the tests.

Online benefit: The insurer offers a discount on two levels. Compared with its offline policy called Health Companion, this is cheaper by up to 10% for a one-year term and 20% for a two-year term. Also, it offers discount for smaller cities. The policy has divided the country into three zones. Zone 1 that consists of 8 metro cities will have the least discount in premiums considering that hospital costs are the maximum in these cities. Zone 2 consists of capitals of all states and zone 3 consists of all other cities and enjoys the least premium.

Mint money take

A 30-year-old taking a sum insured of 5 lakh will need to pay a premium of around 5,000 per year in Zone 1. A similar policy in the market can be bought for around 4,000. But if you are in a zone 3 city, say Agra, then this policy becomes cheaper at 3,979. You should buy a policy that has no sub-limits unless price is the only deciding factor.

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Published: 23 Jan 2013, 08:32 PM IST
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