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Our Indian companies like ICiCi offer, but am not sure how the claims are settled. These looks super cheap so am sure there will be a lot of fine prints. Best will be to get from USA.

I can recommend Manulife if you plan to include Canada in your trip. Usually costs me around 120 CAD for 30-40 days of trip. They will have cashless arrangements at most hospitals, have seen some guys struggling to get claims via Indian insurances. A neighbour had some problems in eye and she couldn’t claim. Total bill was a couple of thousand dollars which she didn’t had. The operating doctor forego his complete fees and hospital also applied a large discount. The rest was to be paid on monthly basis. His son who is Canadian citizen had to guarantee the payments.

Thank you, Turbanator. I am looking for USA plans since i travel nearly every year there and after this incident don't want to go there w/o insurance.

Any idea on US specific plans?

Hello!

I already have a health insurance from Aditya Birla of 10L
And one from office with Reliance of 5L

I got a call regarding Kotak Health Shield which covers critical illnesses till 30 years from today at 5.1K per year for I guess 40L cover (10L per illness)

The premium for critical illness will remain constant till those 30 years

Is it worth going for it? Confused.

Please help!

Is it advisable to take the Corona Kavach medical insurance for all in family even if we have existing medical health insurance which is adequate. Only advantage is this will not have copay while our normal insurance will have a 15-20% copay deduction during settlement. Some factors to consider is that in our family of 5, 3 are adults and are 45+ and vaccinated already of which Mom is 74 but healthy. Kids are 20 and 16, elder has received first shot of covishield. The premium is working out to 38K for this additional 5L cover for each individual in the family.

Hi Friends!

After 3 harrowing days in the hospital and looking at the bills people had to pay (one for a friend's mother and one for my grand mother), I decided to look at my mother's existing policy with National Insurance which she got many years back. The coverage is too low and the premium is too high.

So I wanted to get one from the private companies and short listed two mentioned as follows:

1. ICICI Lombard - Because I have mine with them
2. Star Health - Because of decent reviews

Now, about the premium, I see the difference is humongous. Star Health Red Carpet for 5L is INR 21K whereas ICICI is INR 55K. Am I missing something here? I am quite new to health insurance purchase so need some inputs here.

Is your concern on covid expenses or general health? If covid, you can take the Kavach cover of 5L which has a cap. I paid now for 5 in family about 30k through my employer and it is with New India. For general health i had a personal policy through Apollo Munich, which got acquired by HDFC now. Had taken Apollo Munich for easy claims at Apollo hospitals, but that was not to be. This is in force now, but by good grace we've not had to claim so far in 4 years.

If you travel abroad for work and stay no longer than 6 months at a stretch then you can buy a travel insurance policy or Overseas Mediclaim Policy from India.

You can buy a travel specific policy say for a fixed duration while going on a holiday or an annual policy like I do which will cover multiple trips abroad. Generally the annual policy is either including USA/Canada or excluding USA/Canada and will cover all other countries.

My last policy from Bajaj Allianz expired in Jan this year, which had a USD 500k limit including USA/Canada and the total premium including GST was under INR 6k.

Ideally if you have been working with a firm for long and plan to stick around for a few more years then just the office group policy would suffice (provided cover is minimum 5 lacs) and one should not have a separate individual policy.

Reasons being:

a) Office policy will be more comprehensive and will cover everything from day 1.
b) Claims handling is much easier
c) Better premium
d) If you have a claim you need to notify both policies (office and personal) and can't just claim under one policy

Hence, it would be better to instead buy a top up personal policy which can offer cover for 20 lacs or more over the office policy and it will be more economical and offer greater protection (limit wise)

Existing Mediclaim policies already cover Covid treatment and unless the elders have other pre existing disease which can get expensive in case of hospitalization then you can think of getting additional security for covid.

P.s - Getting a first shot of vaccine is not enough as my father was admitted for covid treatment post his first vaccination and the bill was 1.5 lacs for 5 days of hopitalisation.

Check the coverages offered under both and the waiting period as new policy won't cover pre existing disease for at least 3 years, and if one is diabetic then chances of getting any insurance cover is nil as major health complications get related to diabetes.

Hey! Thank you so much Sns!


So you mean to suggest:

1. Continue with the company Health Insurance Policy (Which I will)

2. Discontinue my personal policy? I was worried about the amount of expenses in the future as I can decrease my amount but cannot increase it without starting from Zero. It's of 10L which will increase till 15L for no claims.

3. Get that Kotak Health Shield?

Thanks!

Thank you for your input. I don't know if i would be covered after my recent illness? My existing health policy covered it, but i would have to buy a new policy for travel. So would it come under pre existing diseases and hence not covered?

ps: Can anyone share experiences about how effective these travel policies are when it comes to the crunch ( not that we want it to happen)

I suggest not to eliminate private health insurance cover and to cover wife, kids and parents through private insurance so that in the unfortunate event of employee passing away, atleast the family continues to get cover. Most companies do not protect family once an employee passes away or retires etc. There are some companies that do this but i have taken a separate cover for my family (excluding me) apart from my employment benefit along these lines.

The reason why I suggest people not to maintain a personal policy along with an office policy is the hassles one has to go through at the time of a claim as one needs to submit original bills to both insurers and if you don't have an agent to do it for you then it would be a big challenge for instance if its you who is hospitalized and your elderly parents have to do all the running around.

On an office policy the process is much faster and smoother as you have people who will do it for you and being a corporate insurance account things move faster too if escalated in the system which won't be the case with a personal insurance.

Regards to the Kotak health shield does it cover only critical illness? If yes, then you may look at alternatives for a top up policy. Recently got a top up for my father in law for a 25 lac limit over 5 lacs at a premium of 13k which includes GST. He is 60+ and the policy covers his wife too.

P.s - On the suggestion diyguy offered my counter would be in today's world a 5 lac Mediclaim cover is not enough when you're covering multiple members under a floater policy. And if you consider the amount you pay as premium for this limit you would easily end up paying more premium over the limit offered in a few years and hence its a limit which one may consider as self insurance. The real purpose of buying Mediclaim insurance is too avoid the big bills which can drain one financially.


Pre existing medical illness or condition won't be covered under this.

Thanks diyguy! Yes, I was thinking of not eliminating my pvt. insurance as I saw quotes for my dad's heart bypass op. which was way above 5 lakh. Had to go through lot of hassles and government hospital which made my expense down to approx. Rs.1.5 lakh. (Also unmarried, yet!)


Hey SnS! So..
1. I took my Health Insurance through agent exactly for the same reason (since my parents are 65+). This was before I joined my current company since I did not have any cover before that. And it has discounts for being active (motivating me to walk)

2. Yes, the office policy is good. And my parents (both) are covered upto 3lakh for 14k per year. I would not have been able to manage otherwise or even possible for dad's case.

4. Yes, the Kotak Shield was only for critical illnesses. (Those calls scare me I tell you! Sir, incase you get an attack, in case you get cancer!...stop it!)

I do not have ANY idea about top ups. How do they work? Is 5 lakh premium + 25lakh top up cheaper than 15 lakh premium? how and why?

3 lakh is too less considering you have elderly parents covered too.

That is why I mentioned earlier that a personal policy is not advisable if one has at least 5 lac office policy and has been working at the organization for long and continue to do so.

Or else if one keeps switching jobs then he might have no insurance at all and if you work for a smaller firm or a start up who don't have an office policy in the first place.

The reason for the higher premium is that your office policy and your personal policy both will act as a grounds up policy in case of a claim and hence you have to inform both insurers and will pay your claim for their respective share accordingly depending on the terms and conditions which might be different under both policies.

In case of a top up policy they have a buffer of the first 5 lacs so its like buying a high deductible policy for a lower premium and hence the Insurance company offers you the premium advantage for absorbing the first 5 lac claim.

Thank you so much for prompt replies! Got it!
My personal insurance is 10L with no-claim bonus expanding it till 15L. Costs 9k (7k with discounts) per year at-least till I am 35 y/o

Office one is 5L for me (no extra deductions) and 3L for both parents (extra and deductible @ 14k per year)

Will checkout the top-up plans through my agent. Thanks again for clearing that topic! :Cheering:

Pleasure :)

The reason for that is your company covers you and your family minus parents under its own expense or the premium is already calculated as a part of your annual package.

Parents are kept separately as that is where most claims happen and hence the premium for everyone goes up including cost to the company. But instead of offering no solution they offer a lower limit and ask you to pay for it. hence, win win for all.