Medical Insurance Calculator: Estimate Your Premium
Recently, with the skyrocketing healthcare costs and higher incidence of lifestyle diseases, health insurance has become a necessity for every individual. However, choosing the right one is quite challenging due to the involvement of various factors.
This blog will guide you on how to use a health insurance premium calculator to compare and choose your desired plan. Let us dive in for more detail!
How to Use a Medical Insurance Calculator?
You need to follow these steps to use a medical insurance calculator to check your plans:
1. Open the Online Health Insurance Calculator
Visit the website of an insurance company or a health insurance aggregator and find the health insurance premium calculator. It is often labelled as 'Get Quote' or 'Calculate Premium'.
2. Enter Your Personal Details
Provide all your essential personal details, such as your age, location, and gender. If you plan to choose a family plan, you must include all your family members under a single policy. For older individuals, you can specifically check premiums for health insurance for senior citizens, which usually have tailored benefits.
3. Add Health Information
Always be honest and disclose all your important personal details, including yourself and your family members. Remember, the presence of any pre-existing condition or habits like smoking or drinking can affect your premium.
4. Select Coverage and Add-Ons
Select the preferred type of policy, like individual or family floater, along with the chosen coverage option. Include any optional riders or benefits, such as maternity coverage or critical illness.
5. Calculate the Premium
Click the Calculate option, and then the medical insurance premium calculator will generate an estimated premium based on your provided information. Always seek advice from an expert regarding the specific terms and conditions of your chosen insurer.
6. Review and Compare
Look at the estimated premium and consider how it fits into your budget. You can adjust the inputs to see how different coverage levels or add-ons change the cost. Remember that the final premium may differ after a full underwriting process and medical tests.
What are the Factors that Affect Your Premium?
Here we will categorise the factors into two segments: one is personal factors, and the other is policy-related factors. An online medical insurance premium calculator uses these factors and provides you with an estimated premium amount. Let us look into them in this section:
1. Personal Factors
- : Older individuals generally pay higher premiums due to an increased risk of health issues.
- Health Status: Individuals with pre-existing conditions or a history of chronic disease will have to pay higher premiums.
- : Certain habits, like excessive drinking or chain smoking, increase the premium amount due to the possibility of health risks.
- Physical Health: Various factors, such as Body Mass Index (BMI) and obesity, can impact your premium.
- : Some jobs or occupations are considered higher risk due to health hazards and can affect the overall premium amount.
- Family Size: In the case of family policies, the premium increases with each additional person covered under the plan.
2. Policy-Related Factors
- Sum Insured: A higher sum insured results in a higher premium amount.
- Types of Plan: Comprehensive plans with more features and benefits have higher premiums than basic plans.
- Policy Duration: The length of the policy term can affect the premium.
- Add-ons or Riders: Including riders or extra benefits, such as add-ons, will increase your premium amount.
- No-Claim Bonus: Accumulation of No-Claim bonus can impact your premium amount.
- Co-Payment Clause: A policy that includes a co-payment clause, where you pay a certain percentage of the total sum insured, will reduce your premium amount.
Tips to Reduce Your Health Insurance Premium
You can reduce your health insurance premium amount through a combination of various factors. Let us discuss them in detail:
1. Buy Early
If you buy your desired health insurance policy at an early age, then you have to pay a lower premium. This is because you have less risk of developing any condition. Which usually increases with age.
2. Compare Policies Online
Use the online health premium calculator to compare the cost, features, and coverage of different insurers’ plans. This eliminates intermediary fees and helps you to find the best value for your needs.
3. Opt for a Family Floater Plan
A single-family floater plan covering all your family members is typically cost-effective than purchasing individual policies for each family member. Thus, you can buy a comprehensive plan to secure your and your family's future.
4. Avoid Minor Claims
Pay for small and easily affordable medical expenses from your own pocket to build your No-claim bonus (NCB). A higher NCB can lead to an increased sum insured at the same premium or a discount on your renewal premium.
5. Invest in a Long-Term Policy
Many insurance companies offer discounts of 5% to 10% for choosing a policy tenure of 2 to 3 years. Availing such discounts can protect you from annual premium hikes. Thus, investing in a long-term policy can prevent you from paying high premiums.
Final Words
You can get an accurate estimated premium amount from an online medical insurance premium calculator. It evaluates all the above mentioned factors and estimates the cost depending on your health requirements. Actually, a premium calculator bridges the gap between your budget and medical requirements.