Health Insurance premiums – How they rise, as you grow

Although people have become too much cautious about their health and they have also started taking care of their health, it’s quite tough to be in good health. As age advances, your health is at the risk of developing illnesses ranging from minor to major ones that require medical attention. Medical treatment costs a lot, even for a minor illness/surgery that could drain a major portion of your hard-earned savings. Here, comes the role of health insurance, the insurance premiums or health policy premium can solve your problem.

The health insurance policy covers the medical expenses incurred during hospitalization, pre & post-hospitalization expenses, etc. Some insurance policies also provide cover for medical check-ups, dental treatment, etc. With a health cover, you don’t need to get worried about paying medical bills and just focus on your health recovery. The insurance company charges you a premium amount and provides you with a health cover, as chosen by you.

How health insurance premium is determined?

As we grow older, it seems that life is a little bit hard for us. In the time of retirement, you plan to live happily and spend time with family, but with the changing weather, our body and health become an issue for us. In the old age period of life, we are affected by multiple diseases and it is the worst time because, you need multiple drugs to fight with disease and a personal assistant, which means a lot of expenses. Health insurance is a support that you need in your retirement life, when it comes to calculating health insurance premiums, the health insurance provider considers various factors such as age, sum assured, health condition, type of plan chosen, etc. The age of the insured is one of the major factors that are considered the most by the insurer.

  • People at a young age, say in an age bracket of 18-35 years are usually in a good health, and people at an older age at about 35-45+ years of age have higher chances of getting ill, which requires immediate medical attention.
  • If at an age of 30 years, you are buying a family health policy covering you, your spouse, and your son with the sum insured of 3 Lacs with a 1-year policy cover, you are charged the premium of Rs 7,269. If you are buying the same plan for your family at an age of 40 years, you need to pay the premium of 7,879. So, by buying a health cover early at 40 years of age, you need to pay an additional Rs 610 on the annualized premium.
  • People of older age might require diagnostic procedures such as blood pressure checkups, cholesterol reviews, diabetes, etc. Typically, they require frequent medical care as health issues begin to develop with the age.
  • With rising medical costs such as prescription medication, doctor’s fees, hospitalization expenses, costs of surgeries, etc., the insurance companies will have to bear the higher medical cost and thus the higher risk on the insurer side. It is one of the major reasons why the insurance company increases the premium, as you grow. After properly evaluating the insured profiles, insurance companies fix the rate of premium.
  • In order to avoid the higher cost of your health insurance premium, you can opt for staying healthy & claim less for medical bills, buy family floater policies that charge a lesser premium, or switch to the insurer which offers health coverage at a less expensive premium.

How to reduce the cost of health insurance premiums?

Well, there is a certain way through which you can reduce the premium cost, the insurance companies only offer usually young people but there are some points by which you will also get the option of reducing the premium cost.

  • By staying updated on the various health insurance regulations passed by the IRDA. IRDA always comes with new norms keeping the demand of the public in mind, and these changes always secure the view of common people.
  • By staying healthy and having a less checked medical history. Living a healthy life is a basic need of today’s society and maybe that’s why we mostly see the crowd at a park every morning by staying healthy you can reduce the cost of health insurance premiums.
  • Changing insurance companies to avail less expensive premiums, it’s a part of the research. There are a lot of insurance companies and every one provides the policy with different benefits and different coverage, and every company shows that it is best. So you need to do research to choose the best policy for yourself, you can compare the health policy; it’ll also work for you.
  • Buying a policy online, nowadays buying a policy is easy and simple too. The Internet plays a vital role in terms of getting knowledge and also in terms of purchasing stuff. It’ll take 5 or fewer minutes to buy the policy online and it also reduces the cost of the premium while buying a policy offline is a lengthy process and it’ll go through with the agent.

What is the right time to buy a policy?

The right time to buy a policy is the age between 18-35 years people should policy because they’ll get a lot of benefits, as per insurance companies young people are the favorite for policies and they are the target audience of insurance companies. Buying a policy at a young age means getting a policy is cheaper and with minimal premium, there is some factor to calculate the premium, and with the help of the age of the customer and sum assured to play a significant role in calculating the premium.

Conclusion

A health insurance policy ensures financial cover against medical expenses incurred due to any illness or injury. It is true that insurance companies increase health insurance premiums with your age, depending on your health condition. You are advised to choose a comprehensive health Insurance policy available at affordable premiums that can provide adequate coverage as well to cater to all your healthcare needs. Sometimes premium amount varies from one company to another company and the same as the coverage are differ, the premium of the policy depends on the insured’s age and sum assured. 

Sonia Nagpal

Sonia Nagpal is an Insurance Specialist. She has more than 25 Yrs of experience in sales, Marketing and Corporate Alliances.

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