Do the math before you buy a health policy

Health insurance policies are modelled to offer extensive health coverage and ease the financial burden during a medical emergency. However, it would help if you calculated a policy premium before buying a health policy because the insurance premium calculator enables you to distinguish between various plans based on your requirements.

Ankit Agrawal, CEO and co-founder, InsuranceDekho.com, said, “Health is priceless and especially after the pandemic and growing health risks, people of all income groups, ages and genders must buy a health insurance policy carefully.”

Thus, you can use online calculators as they are available for free and easy to use. Nowadays, every insurance company has its policies and calculators.

“It is essential to do the pre-requisite research before signing up for any offer, although people have the freedom to choose a suitable health insurance policy, based on a comparison between various health policies available in the market,” said Agrawal.

While online health calculators deliver health insurance premiums of several plans and present an accurate policy premium, there can be additional loading subject to underwriting approval if you declare any pre-existing disease.

Generally, health insurers determine the premium cost after assessing your lifestyle, medical history and pre-existing illnesses. Almost all health insurers have their set parameters, and based on them, they fix the premium cost.

A health insurance calculator gives you a tentative idea about the cost of policies in advance and conserves a lot of energy and time you would otherwise be spending in understanding the complex premium processes. It also facilitates ease of purchase and comparison.

Sheenu Sehgal, vice-president & national head GI, Bajaj Capital Ltd, said, “The insurance premium calculator eases the purchase by not only giving the premiums of insurance products but also one can draw a comparison of features, riders across various plans.”

Agrawal added, “Health insurance premium calculator offers to change the tenure of data of the premium, and you have the freedom to exclude and include additional coverage through riders provided by various insurers offering their plans while buying online insurance. They enable you to add and eliminate insured people, modify plan benefits, change sum insured coverage, etc., allowing you to choose the necessary components. You can further analyse the monetary impact of a particular add-on on your monthly budget through the insights proposed by the health insurance calculator.”

Besides, by calculating health insurance premiums, you tend to eliminate errors. Calculators generally available online enable you to specify your premium paying liabilities and ensure you pay the right amount.

In many cases, people tend to bypass the policy terms, which eventually causes them to pay extra than necessary.

Agrawal said, “You don’t have to be deceived by blogs on the internet or some ‘friendly’ advice from that relative of yours. The health insurance calculator takes the anxiety off you to become a mathematician while striving to calculate premiums on your own.”

While calculating insurance premium is an essential aspect of policy buying, it is also crucial to understand your health insurance needs.

Generally, there are three types of health policies. The first one provides fixed benefits, the second is indemnity type policies and the third is specific disease-based policies, typically related to critical illnesses.

Hence, you must go through the pros and cons of each type of policy, then choose the one that best provides for your necessity.