5 Ways to Save Money on Your Health Insurance Premiums

With every year, we are making technological advancements in the medical field. With research, new drugs are getting discovered, and with technology, new procedures (operations/surgeries) are becoming possible. However, along with these positive developments, medical inflation is also rising faster. Today, health insurance is more of a necessity rather than an option. But, due to financial constraints, some people find it challenging to buy a health insurance plan  that suits their needs. In such a scenario, they can start with a basic, affordable plan like the Arogya Sanjeevani Policy or follow the suggestions discussed in this article to save money on their health insurance premiums.

1) Purchase health insurance early in life

One of the important factors that determines your health insurance premium is your age. As your age increases, your health insurance premium increases. Hence, you should buy health insurance early to save on the premium.

Also, the probability of suffering from a disease/illness is lower when you are younger. The premium for healthy people is lower than for those suffering from an illness.

2) Compare health insurance plans

When purchasing a health insurance plan, you should compare plans. You can compare health insurance plans of different companies. If you wish to buy a plan from a specific company, you should compare plans of that company.

Nowadays, health insurance companies allow you to customise the plan as per your requirements. Companies provide variants of the same plan. For example, ManipalCigna ProHealth Prime has three variants: Protect, Advantage, and Active. The benefits vary with each plan. Advantage plans carry additional features compared to ManipalCigna ProHealth Prime Protect variant.

You can further customise the plan by choosing from:

Optional packages: These include Enhance, Enhance Plus, Freedom, and Assure

Optional covers: These include non-medical items (non-payables), deductible, infertility treatment, personal accident cover, cumulative bonus booster, worldwide accidental emergency hospitalisation cover , and ManipalCigna Critical Illness Add-on Cover.

Based on your need and the premium, you can build your customised health insurance plan by selecting the plan variant, optional packages, and optional covers. The optional packages and covers help you save money by selecting only those features that you need. If you are still not sure which plan to choose, you can talk to experts at ManipalCigna. An expert with in-depth knowledge will connect with you and provide valuable insights to make an informed decision.

3) Maintain a healthy lifestyle

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the key to saving on health insurance premiums. Giving up on bad habits can help you save premiums. Health insurance companies have a higher premium for smokers than non-smokers. Similarly, if you consume alcohol beyond a specified limit regularly, you will be charged a higher premium than others. Avoiding smoking, tobacco, and alcohol consumption can help maintain a healthy lifestyle while saving on health insurance premiums.

A healthy lifestyle includes eating healthy foods, exercising, sleeping on time, stress management, etc. Practicing such a lifestyle reduces the chances of contracting lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart ailments, etc Waiting period for pre-existing diseases will not apply, if you are maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

ManipalCigna rewards you for maintaining a healthy lifestyle even after buying health insurance . The ManipalCigna ProHealth Prime Insurance Plan offers Healthy Rewards, a reward point system that can be earned to improve your overall wellbeing.

ManipalCigna ProHealth Prime Protect and Advantage plans offer step tracking benefit which can earn you up to 20% of the premium paid. The table below

Conditions under this benefit is as follows:

a) The number of days specified in the table above should fall under the first 9 months of every policy year. The activities undertaken towards this benefit during the last 3 months of the policy year shall not be considered for reward calculation.

b) This wellness program is available only for the adult members 18 years and above.

Rewards can be earned by adhering to Condition Management Program under the ManipalCigna ProHealth Prime Active plan, for improving the Health Parameters. These earned Reward Points can be used against payable Renewal premium.

a) Health Score will be allocated against the final value of each ailment.

b) In case of more than one ailment, a weighted average of all Health scores will be calculated. The weights will be assigned for ailments in decreasing order as follows: Diabetes, Hypertension, Obesity, Dyslipidaemia, Asthma

4) Other options to save health insurance premium

So far, we have discussed three ways of saving health insurance premiums. Some other ways include:

a) Opting for Family floater plan instead of individual policies:

A family floater plan has the advantage of providing cover to the entire family compared to an individual plan. The premium for a family floater plan is lower than purchasing individual plans separately family members for the same sum insured.

b) Multi-year plans:

Some insurance companies offer a discount of 5 to 15% when you choose to pay the premium for 2 or 3 years instead of a single year. Thus, you can save on your health insurance premiums by paying lump sum for 2-3 years.

c)No-claim bonus:

Some insurance companies provide a no-claim bonus as a discount on renewal premiums or increasing the sum insured.

d) Voluntary co-payment:

Some policies have an optional, voluntary co-payment add-on. If you select this add-on, the premium will be lower depending on the co-payment percentage chosen.

5) Choose a basic plan

We have discussed the various ways of saving health insurance  premium. Ideally, you should choose a health insurance plan as per your needs. However, if the cost is still a challenge, you may opt for a basic plan. An affordable Health Insurance plan with a sum insured range of Rs. 50,000 to Rs 10 lakhs should suffice when starting out. With increase in annual income, you can opt for high sum insured plans that offer additional benefits as well

Save up on the health insurance premiums with the above suggestions. If you haven’t already bought a health insurance plan, you should buy it immediately. Initially, a comprehensive health insurance plan with good features and benefits may look slightly expensive. But, during a hospitalisation event, health insurance can be a big saviour against hospitalisation costs. So, contact a ManipalCigna Expert, discuss your health needs, and buy an appropriate health insurance plan now!