5 Points to Ensure Before You Buy a Health Insurance Policy

A family health insurance plan is always a great investment for you to make. Because, at the end of the day, no one knows what the future holds. A family medical insurance plan will cover you and your family’s health care expenses in case you need them. The insurance will take off the yoke of expenses from your back, at least as far as medical expenses go. But wait – before you buy an insurance policy make sure you take special notice of the following factors in your selected insurance plan. This means you shouldn’t simply buy a policy for its lowest monthly premium, even though it is an important factor to be considered.

1. Check your Insurer’s Track Record

Before buying a policy from any insurance company, do a little research about their past and history. Specifically, look for things that will tell you how often the company has been reasonable about providing their promised coverage. Most insurance companies allow you to claim the insurance only if the cases are proved medically unavoidable because, ultimately, they are running a business. There are companies out there that are more often than not reluctant about paying for your medical expenses. You don’t want to end up in court with your insurance company, arguing over whether or not they should be covering your medical expenses, so thoroughly vetting them before signing any contracts is a necessary precaution.

2. Exceptions and Limits

As with everything, there will exceptions and limitations to the coverage. For example all or most companies have an exception policy on pre-existing illnesses. If you have already had a medical condition prior to buying the insurance, the expenses for these might not be taken care of by the company. Any insurance buyer with a pre-existing medical condition will be left to a four year waiting period before they are given the insurance coverage. Also, the insurance policy will only cover a part of the costs of medical care. The percentage of coverage will depend on the seriousness of the disease and its costliness.

3. Your Family Requirements

Check on what exactly your family needs from the insurance policy. You have to keep in mind the number of members in your family. Choose the policy according to the necessities of your family. Their ages are also an important deciding factor in life insurance policies.

4. Cashless Network Hospitals

Every company will have their own network of cashless hospitals as part of the insurance coverage. During a medical emergency, if you get admitted to one of your network hospitals, the insurance company will directly settle all the bills with the hospital. You need not be bothered about consultancy charges or medicine bills.

5. Lifetime Renewals

A lifetime renewal policy is something you should definitely consider getting for your family. No one can be sure of being healthy all the time. As you grow old , you might not be able to get coverages with new policies. If updating or continuing your coverage is something you would like to be able to do as you age (and possibly develop new conditions) then ensure your policy allows for lifetime renewals.