Health insurance is an agreement between the insurance company and the insured person in which the insurance company agrees to pay the claim up to the sum insured in case of any hospitalization in return for a considerable amount known as “Premium”. The health insurance calculator available on the Our Portal helps you in determining your health insurance premium to be paid. A health insurance calculator is the best online tool available to check your health insurance premium. The health insurance premium calculator displays premiums from different insurance companies offering their health insurance products.
The importance of health insurance can be known from the recent Coronavirus pandemic where people having Health insurance policies were reimbursed for their medical expenses, while families without a health insurance policy were forced to avail loans or sell off their properties to pay the hospital bills. The rising hospital bills are a big concern to middle-class families as even a small accident or illness could wipe off their entire life savings. If you have a health insurance policy your savings, as well as properties, would remain intact as the medical bills would be paid by the insurance company.
What is Health Insurance Premium?
The Health Insurance Premium is the amount of money you need to pay regularly to an insurance company in order to help the medical coverage as well as to ensure that the policy remains in force. The health insurance premium calculator used you to calculate your health insurance policy premium, based on your insurance needs. In return, the insurance company agrees to pay for the hospitalization expenses and medical bills in the event of a medical emergency.
What is Health Insurance Calculator?
Online Health insurance calculator is the perfect tool to calculate your health insurance premium. The health policy premium calculator takes into consideration various factors such as the age of the person, gender of the applicant; sum insured required, pre-existing illness, location of the person, etc and determines the premium to be paid by the applicant. Health insurance premium mainly depends on the age of the applicant; the higher the age, the higher would be the health insurance premium. It is advisable to take a health insurance policy at a very young age to satisfy the conditions mentioned in the policy such as Pre-existing diseases, a 30-day waiting period, and a Specific disease waiting period.
Your health insurance premium may increase in case there is a claim in the previous year and your sum insured may increase in case there is no claim in the previous year. The increase in sum insured is termed as the No claim bonus which is awarded for each claim-free year. The maximum no claim bonus that can be awarded is the sum insured mentioned in the policy copy. The health insurance calculator does calculate the health insurance premium precisely without scope for errors.
How are Health Insurance Premiums Calculated?
Based on some factors the health insurance premium is calculated. Factors affecting health insurance premium calculation are mortality rate, gender, health history, lifestyle, type of policy, coverage, hobbies/occupation, co-pay, claim settlement time. Depending on these factors the health insurance premium is calculated
Step 1: The first step in using the health insurance calculator is to click on the online health insurance premium calculator at PolicyBachat and proceed to the data entry.
Step 2: The next step in using the health insurance calculator is to enter the below details clearly and correctly.
- Gender of the applicant- Male and Female
- Whom do you want to insure? – Self, Spouse, and Family or Self & Spouse only
- Age of the applicant; to be entered as Date of Birth
- Medical history – Any pre-existing conditions as well as medical history to be declared.
- Pin code of your location
- Name of the applicant and email id of the applicant.
Step 3: In this step, you can enter your requirements such as:-
- Sum insured required under the health insurance policy
- Refine plans – Plans can be selected on the basis of your requirements.
- Add-ons such as Critical illness, Waiver of premium, and Accidental disability cover can be selected and the premium would change accordingly.
- Preferred Brands- You can filter your preferred insurance company’s health insurance plans.
Step 4: This is the last and final step where you need to make payment to the insurance company and it only takes a few minutes to finish this process. The premium figure displayed may be changed subject to the medical underwriting. Once the premium payment is made, the customer receives confirmation regarding the same and there may be a requirement to undergo certain medical tests depending on the declaration made in the proposal form.
Benefits of Health Insurance Calculator
You can check your health insurance premium using the health insurance calculator online by entering your age, gender, coverage required, and declaring your health history. There are many benefits of the health insurance premium calculator as well as demerits of it. Let us understand the benefits and demerits of health insurance calculator:
- Easy Estimation:
The health insurance premium calculator is very easy to use. Your health insurance premium can be obtained in 2 easy steps; the first step is to enter the basic details such as Age, Gender, Location, Tobacco consumption, and coverage required. Then in the next step, the health insurance premiums from different insurance companies will be displayed on the screen. You can adjust the sum insured as per your requirement and affordability; opt for extra coverage in the form of add-ons and click on proceed to payment.
Once you reach the payment page, payment can be done on the link of the insurance company and the payment will be debited to the insurance company’s account. The process of calculating premiums online helps you determine the premium amount payable by you well in advance, thereby giving you an idea to allocate the budget for your health insurance. The estimation given by the online calculator would be valid until further change by the insurance company and the premiums displayed are accurate.
- Compare & Save:
Another advantage of health insurance premium calculator is that these calculators can save ample time for the users. If the premiums are to be calculated using an offline rater, it would take much time as it involves manual calculations. Most people prefer to use online health insurance calculators to save time and energy.
Online health insurance calculators can be used to compare the health insurance premiums from different insurance companies at the same time thereby saving your time. If the same calculation is to be done manually it would consume a lot of time of the user as the different insurance companies are to be compared for different factors. Online health insurance calculator makes it easy to compare health insurance and evaluate the health insurance options available to select the right health insurance plan for you and your family.
- No human involvement:
Online health insurance calculators reduce human involvement to a great extent as the comparison is done by a machine. Lower the human involvement, lower would be the room for error. The entry of online health insurance calculators has reduced the dependency on agents and increased efficiency. We can get the premium any time of the day or night using the online health insurance calculator which is not possible with the agents. There are no definite working hours when the online health insurance calculator is involved.
The Mediclaim health insurance calculator saves you the tedious process of getting in touch with an agent every time you need to calculate your health insurance premium. An online health insurance calculator can be used to calculate the health insurance premium any number of times which eliminates the tired factor which can be observed with an agent.
- Multiple calculations:
Multiple calculations can be made using the online health insurance calculator. Customers can enter different values of sum assured or add-ons and get the premium amount each time within a fraction of seconds. Manual calculations take time as each time the data needs to be entered freshly to get the premium, but in the case of an online health insurance calculator, the premium can be obtained spontaneously each time. For instance, if you want to check the premium at the maximum sum assured or for different age groups, it is spontaneous to get the premium using the online health insurance premium calculator.
Factors Affecting Health Insurance Premium Calculation
A health insurance premium is influenced by many factors such as Age of the prospect, gender, mortality rate, coverage, type of policy, etc. Let us understand the factors influencing the health insurance premium:-
- Mortality Rate:
Health insurance premium primarily depends on the mortality rate of the group. In life insurance, the premium is subject to change each year while in health insurance the premium is fixed for a couple of years while some companies change the premium each year. This is due to the mortality rate which is calculated for a range of years in health insurance while in life insurance the mortality rate is subject to change for different age groups. It is well known that the mortality rate is higher in the elders when compared to the youngsters; this is due to the older people contracting diseases and being heavily prone to illness. The resistance power among the old people is less compared to the young people. The higher the mortality rate, the higher would be the health insurance premium.
Higher Mortality rate = Higher premium
Health insurance premium increases with the increase in age of the prospect due to the high mortality ratio which is observed to increase as the age increases. The health insurance calculator takes the mortality ratio into consideration while calculating the health insurance premium. Hence, it is advisable to take a health insurance policy at a very young age to reduce the premium at old age as the health insurance calculator displays a high premium at old age. The health insurance premium varies with age which is the reason there would be a steep increase in the premium as the age increases.
- Gender:
Gender determines the health insurance premium to be paid by the customer. Few insurance companies offer different premiums for men and women, on the basis that the women are more likely to live on an average 5 years more than men which means that they are subject to more chronic disorders when compared to men. Higher your lifetime, the higher the chance of getting contracted with different illnesses. This results in the higher life insurance premiums to be paid by the women when compared to men.
But it is important to note that most of the deaths occur in women at the time of pregnancy and the insurance companies would not be willing to insure a carrying woman. Due to the complication arising out at the time of delivery or during pregnancy, there are high chances that the mortality ratio can increase in women. Pregnant women are generally avoided by insurance companies until 6 months after the pregnancy due to the complications that can arise at the time of pregnancy or post-pregnancy.
- Health History:
The health history of the prospect also plays an important role in deciding the premium to be charged by the insurance company. The health insurance calculator takes into account the health history of the prospect and decides on the acceptance of the proposal. Every insurance proposal requires the health history of the prospect to be taken into consideration before deciding on the acceptance of the proposal. The health insurance underwriting process involves getting adequate information from prospect regarding the health history such as pre-existing diseases if the prospect has undergone any treatments or operations, any hereditary diseases, etc.
All these factors are considered by the underwriting team of the health insurance company before deciding on the health insurance premium. The health insurance premium calculator displays the premium if there are no pre-existing conditions or adverse health history. All the other cases with an adverse health history and pre-existing conditions will be examined by the underwriter to decide on the acceptance of the proposal.
It is very difficult to obtain a health insurance policy if you have any pre-existing disease such as Cancer or Heart attack or any other illness. Few companies won’t consider the health insurance proposals of customer with Diabetes and High blood pressure as these are the most common diseases which can cause some serious illnesses such as Heart attacks, Nerve damages, etc. It is important to declare the correct medical history in the proposal form so that the insurance company can take a correct decision on the acceptance of the proposal.
Obesity and underweight are the two factors that affect the health insurance premium to be paid by the customer. Being obese can lead to a number of health problems such as Heart attack, diabetes, High BP, etc which increase the mortality ratio. Being Underweight can also lead to contracting many diseases such as Malnutrition, Anaemia and vitamin deficiency disease, etc.
- Coverage:
Coverage is the sum insured selected by the applicant is the maximum liability of the insurance company in case of hospitalization due to an accident or illness. The sum insured is paid to the policyholder or legal heir in case of the death of the policyholder. Sum insured can be increased or decreased by the customer on the Online Portal and the premium can be obtained within a fraction of seconds.
Insurance companies do not decide the sum insured required by the customer as they do in the case of life insurance. The sum insured should be selected by the customer at the time of purchasing the policy. There is no calculator which determines the correct sum insured to be selected by the customer as there are different ways in which the customer can get treated. For instance, one customer may get treated in a tier 2 city where the cost of heart surgery is Rs.5 Lacs and if the same customer opts to get treated for the same surgery in a tier 1 city the treatment cost would be Rs.10 Lacs. So, all these things should be taken into consideration while deciding the sum insured for a particular period.
The health insurance premium calculator increases the premium if the sum insured is increased, and reduces the premium if the sum insured is decreased. The increase in premium is due to the extra risk that needs to be taken by the insurance company which comes with the increased premium. The higher the coverage opted by the customer, the higher would be the premium to be paid by the customer.
- Smoking / Drinking:
The premium in the health insurance calculator increases if you have smoking and drinking habits. The health insurance premium calculator is designed to increase the premium or refer your proposal to the underwriter in case you have smoking or drinking habits which are considered risky elements in the health insurance underwriting process. The mortality rate is high in the case of people, smoking tobacco and consuming alcohol. A higher mortality rate leads to higher premiums which would be reflected in your health insurance calculator.
Consuming tobacco and drinking liquor can cause various diseases such as Cancer, Heart attack, Diabetes, etc which in turn increase the chance of death of the prospect. Hence the health insurance premiums for these categories are on the higher side when compared to people without these habits. Smoking and drinking are injurious not only to your health but also increase your health insurance premium.
- Hobbies / Occupation:
The occupation of the prospect also decides the health insurance premium be paid. For the purpose of insurance, occupations such as Persons working in Chemical, Fire Crackers, Army and police, etc. services are classified as Hazardous and pose a high level of risk for the insurance companies in terms of hospitalization. These occupations have a higher chance of hospitalization and thereby higher health insurance premium is charged.
The chances of hospitalization are high in the case of people engaged in these occupations as these are hazardous occupations. Hobbies such as Scuba diving, Paragliding also attract the special attention of the underwriters as there is a high mortality ratio in people having these hobbies. The health insurance premium calculator determines the premium of the prospect based on the hobbies and occupation of the prospect.
- Type of Policy:
One more major factor which determines your health insurance premium using the health insurance premium calculator is the type of health insurance policy opted by you. There are different types of health insurance policies available in the market which differs in the features offered. All the different types of health insurance policies have different premiums but all of them cover the health of the insured against hospitalization.
The premium of the company depends on the service levels also; the better the service, the higher the premium. It is advisable to opt for a health insurance company that provides better service and extensive coverage at the most affordable premiums. The most important thing to check is the number of cashless hospitals available in your location before deciding on the health insurance policy purchase.
- Claim History of Insurance Companies:
The health insurance calculator also takes into consideration the claim history of the insurance company or the previous year's loss ratio of the insurance company. The loss ratio is calculated as a percentage of the premium received to the claims settled. Higher the claims settled leads to increase in loss ratio which crosses 100%. For instance, if the loss ratio of the insurance company is mentioned as 120%, it means that the insurance company paid Rs.120 for every Rs.100 collected as a premium.
The claim history of insurance companies’ increases in certain conditions such as; inadequate pricing, Pandemics such as Coronavirus which worsen the loss ratio of the insurance companies to a great extent. The recent coronavirus pandemic has also increased the loss ratio of the insurance companies as the claims paid are on a record high. If the claim history of the insurance company increases, then the health insurance premiums also tend to increase.
- Co-pay:
Lastly but most importantly, the health insurance premium calculator takes into consideration the co-pay option. If the customer opts for co-pay then the premium to be paid would be reduced as the liability of the insurance company would be reduced in case of hospitalization. Co-pay is the share of the claim amount to be borne by the customer in case of hospitalization. For instance, if you opt for a 20% co-pay at the time of policy purchase and in case of hospitalization the claim amount comes to 1 Lac, then Rs.20k has to be borne by the insured in the form of co-pay.
Tips to Get Low Premiums on Health Insurance
There are some factors that are to be considered to save the health insurance company policy premiums.
- Insure early: Buying health insurance from the best health insurance companies at an early age will benefit you more with longer validity periods and better coverage options. If you buy a health insurance policy at later stages it will invite the deprivation in waiting periods and additional benefits and exclusions.
- Coverage is vital: Health insurance companies might offer you good deals if you buy a health insurance India policy online. Covering your whole family members with a single and best health insurance policy is vital. Look for better coverage options and buy Mediclaim insurance at cheaper premiums online and always stay covered.
- Be aware of changes: Medical insurance companies might update the coverages or the hospitalization benefits that might come in handy for you in necessity. So be up-to-date with the health insurance companies policies.
- Sufficient coverage: Higher coverages will only increase your premiums. Save your health insurance policy premiums by buying the health insurance India policy with enough coverage that shields your medical emergencies and purchasing health insurance from the best health insurance companies will be an added advantage.
- Keep Reviewing: You are advised to keep reviewing your health insurance policy to know about the changed premium rates and treatment expenditure modifications.
- Be true: Saving on premiums will also be possible by providing your full details along with your and your family’s health status. This saves you during the critical illness periods where the monetary aid provided will be based on your given information.
- Know the claim process: Get to know the claim process and the claim settlement ratios of the health insurance companies beforehand to avoid unnecessary rejections of your claims.
For best health insurance quotes using the health insurance calculator please visit PolicyBachatand get the affordable health insurance quotes from the top health insurance companies.