Does Your Health Insurance Plan Provide Adequate Coverage? Re-Evaluate It

Posted on: Feb 15, 2022 | | Written by:

Does Your Health Insurance Plan Provide Adequate Coverage? Re-Evaluate It

Published on February 22, 2022. EST READ TIME: 3 minutes

You buy new clothes and accessories every year. Every few years, you probably change your smartphone too. You even trade up to a better car over time, don’t you? Then sticking to the same family health insuranceplan doesn’t make sense!After all, as years go by, your needs and budget are likely to change. Which means, your health plan might need a reassessment as well.

Here’s an example to make it clearer. Imagine discovering that your current insurer’s claim settlement ratio is extremely poor, but you still don’t make the effort to switch to a trustworthy insurer. It practically means sitting on a ticking bomb. So, periodically, you need to ensure that the policy you have is the best you can get. Here are some reasons why this exercise is crucial.

When does your health insurance need an assessment?

Assessment of family health insurance becomes necessary when you feel your existing plan is not providing adequate coverage. Before you renew your policy, you must re-evaluate or assess your existing policy to understand if it worked well for you during the last policy year, if you were satisfied with the coverage provided, etc. So, here are some situations when your health insurance needs an assessment:

• Are you getting married?

With marriage comes additional responsibilities. Look for a plan that provides adequate cover to your spouse. You can either modify your existing policy, or if required, buy a separate plan.

• New member in the family?

It’s a great feeling to welcome your bundle of joy to this world. But along with responsibilities, your expenses will also increase – from prenatal care to delivery to other paediatric expenses. To ensure your savings are not spent on hospital bills, it’s important to assess your existing health plan and include your new-born in the plan. If maternity cover is not included in your existing plan, you can take it as an add-on, but since there’s a waiting period for maternity cover, you should purchase it accordingly.

• Heading towards retirement?

As you age, you will become more vulnerable to diseases. Regular hospital visits and treatments can cause a dent in your savings. For a financiallysecure retirement, it is recommended that you buy senior citizen plan as such plans are designed keeping in mind the medical needs of the elderly. If required, you can opt for add-ons after having a discussion with your insurance provider.

• Better workplace with good salary?

As you move to greener pastures with a better workplace and better pay, you can afford to pay more premium and enhance your family health insurancepolicy. You can also opt for some add-on covers and perks that will provide maximum coverage.

In case you're not satisfied with the current insurer

If you are not satisfied with your current insurer relating to claim settlement or reimbursement, it’s time to look for another onethat will offer you a better deal. Compare your insurer’s claim settlement ratio with that of other insurers and if you find a good deal, move ahead with the new insurer. There’s no point in sticking to an insurer which does not come to your aid when needed.

Reasons you need to re-evaluate health insurance

• Change in network hospitals:

If, for some reason, the insurer changes the list of network hospitals and the ones in your vicinity are no longer in the list, you need to re-evaluate your existing health plan. You should switch to an insurer with a bigger network of hospitals within your vicinity and ones that are cost-effective too.

• Savingmoney:

If an insurer offers you a plan with similar or better coverage and at a cheaper rate than your current plan, why continue with the existing one? Just because you have bought a family health insurance cover doesn’t mean you have to stick to it for the rest of your life. You might save some money by switching to a plan which comes with lower premium.

• Attractive policy features:

Even if you have a policy, there’s no harm in researching and looking out for better products such as no room rent cap, no claim bonus, restore benefit etc. When you are paying premium, why not go for a policy that has more attractive features than your current plan? After all, what use is the policy if it doesn’t have enough benefits?

• Co-pay:

If your policy has a co-pay clause, it means that a part of the treatment cost will be paid by you and the balance amount will be borne by the insurer. It’s always advisable to go for a no co-pay plan. So, if your current insurer has this clause, you should re-evaluate your health insurance policy and switch to a new one.

Conclusion

With time, medical needs change. And your current family health insurance may not be robust enough to meet those requirements. To ensure you don’t get into any financial crisis because your current plan doesn’t have adequate coverage, it’s important to re-evaluate the same periodically.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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