Top 10 Health Insurance Companies In India

By Niranjana Assurance Services Published on: 19th March 2020

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Today’s age is the age of technology where medical treatments have become advanced and cutting edge. There are treatments for most chronic illnesses too and so life expectancy has increased. However, though medicine has advanced, it has also become expensive. Affording quality healthcare has become financially distressing in modern times. Moreover, as life expectancy has increased, so has the incidence of illnesses. You, therefore, need a health insurance plan to cover the rising costs of medicine and protect yourself financially in a medical emergency.

In India, there are more than two dozen health insurance companies which offer a range of health insurance plans for your needs. There are different types of health insurance plans offered by these health insurance companies.

Let’s have a look at the different types of health insurance plans which you can find –

Types of health insurance plans in India:

Indemnity Health Insurance Plans:

This type of plans pay only for the expenses incurred during hospitalization.

  • Individual health insurance policies –
  1. Individual health insurance plans cover a single person. The plan has a single coverage amount or sum insured which can be utilised by the insured individual for his medical costs.
  • Family floater health insurance plans –
  1. These health plans cover the entire family under one sum insured. Family members include you, your spouse, dependent children and dependent parents. Moreover, there are family floater plans which allow coverage for your extended family members too like your uncle, aunt, siblings, etc. Under family floater health insurance plans, a single health insurance plan is issued and the policy covers all family members. Every covered member would be covered for the full sum insured. However, if one member of the family makes a claim, the sum insured would be reduced. Subsequent claims in the same policy year would then be covered up to the reduced sum insured. Family floater health insurance plans have lower premiums compared to individual health insurance plans for different family members. As such, family floater health insurance plans are quite popular.
  • Senior citizen health insurance plans –
  1. Normal health insurance plans might have a limit on the entry age. These plans usually allow the maximum entry age to 60 or 65 years. For older individuals, there are senior citizen health insurance plans.
  2. Senior Citizen health insurance plans are specially designed for providing coverage individuals who are senior citizens, i.e. aged 61 years and above. Senior citizen plans can be taken to cover a single individual or both the husband and wife on a family floater basis. The sum insured under these plans is limited and the premiums are affordable so that older individuals can afford coverage. Moreover, the coverage benefit under senior citizen health insurance plans are also designed keeping in mind the health needs of senior citizens.
  • Top-up and super top-up health insurance policies –
  1. Top-up and super top-up health insurance plans acts as complementary health insurance plans to increase your existing health insurance coverage. Under these health plans, there is a fixed deductible limit and a sum insured. You can choose both the limit and the coverage amount. These plans cover the actual medical costs that you incur provided that the costs exceed the selected deductible. If the claim is below the deductible limit, nothing would be paid. However, if the claim exceeds the deductible limit, the excess would be covered by top-up and super top-up health plans. Thus, if you have an existing health insurance plan, the coverage of the plan can be chosen as a deductible under a top-up or super top-up plan. Claims up to the deductible would be paid by your existing health insurance plan. Excess, if any, would be paid by the top-up or super top-up health insurance plans. Thus, you can get coverage for high sum insured levels at affordable premiums because top-up and super top-up plans have low premiums.
  • Disease specific health insurance policies –
  1. Under disease specific health insurance policies, one or more specific illnesses are covered. Such illnesses are not considered pre-existing illnesses and you get coverage within a short time after buying the policy. Thereafter, if you suffer any medical complications due to the covered illnesses, the plans would pay the medical costs that you incur. Common illness or disease specific health insurance plans include diabetes care plans, cardiac care plans, dengue plans, etc.

Types of Fixed benefit health insurance policies in India:

These types of plans pay a fixed amount of money on diagnosis of the listed ailment, irrespective of the amount spent on hospitalization.

Under fixed benefit health insurance plans, the following types of plans can be found –

  • Critical illness health plan –
  1. Critical illness health insurance plans cover specified critical illnesses and medical procedures. If during the term of the policy, you are diagnosed with any of the covered illness or you undergo any of the covered medical procedure, the plan pays the entire coverage amount in a lump sum. Common critical illnesses which are covered include cancer, first heart attack, open chest CABG, Coma, kidney failure where regular dialysis is required, etc.
  • Hospital cash plan –
  1. Hospital cash plan is also a fixed benefit health plan. Under this plan, if you are hospitalised for 24 hours or more, a fixed lump sum benefit would be paid daily for each day of hospitalisation. Moreover, there is a fixed daily benefit if you are admitted to the ICU. In case of ICU admission, the hospital daily benefit payable usually doubles. The fixed daily benefit is paid up to a specified number of days per instance of claim.
  • Personal accident plans –
  1. Under personal accident plans, accidental death and disablements are covered. If, in an accident, you suffer accidental death or total/partial permanent disablement, a lump sum benefit would be paid. The benefit depends on the contingency suffered. In case of accidental death and accidental total and permanent disability, 100% of the sum insured is paid. For partial disabilities, 25% to 75% of the sum insured is paid depending on the disability suffered. Personal accident plans also allow optional coverage benefits for loss of job, funeral expenses, fractures, children’s education fund, etc.

How to choose a health insurance plan?

Among the different varieties of health insurance policies available in the market, choosing the most suitable health plan might prove to be a challenge. So, here are some pointers on how you can choose the best health insurance plan for yourself and your family.

Top 10 health insurance companies in India:

Here is a list of the top health insurance providers in India that offer some of the best health insurance plans:

A brief overview of best health insurance companies

Here’s a quick look into what makes the above-mentioned health insurance companies best among the rest.

  • Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company has won various awards for its operations. The company’s ProHealth Plan was voted the ‘Product of the Year’ according to the Consumer Survey of Product Innovation 2019
    2. The company offers a range of tailor-made plans which can be customized as per your needs
    3. The premiums are affordable and the company’s wide hospital network ensures easy cashless claim settlements
  • National Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company has the largest Bancassurance tie-up with leading banks in India
    2. The company enjoys a huge customer base as it is one of the oldest insurers in India
    3. A range of health insurance products are offered by the company with affordable premium rates
    4. The company has been felicitated by the Economic Times Best Brands Award in recent times
  • Religare Health Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company offers an in-house claim settlement department ensuring that your claims are settled at the earliest
    2. A wide range of health insurance plans is available with best-in-class coverage benefits and sum insured levels of up to INR 6 crores
    3. The company has won many awards with the latest being the ‘Best Health Insurance Company’ Award at the ABP News-BFSI Awards
  • Star Health & Allied Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company has won the ‘Health Insurer Provider of the Year’ Award
    2. The company has settled more than 4.9 million claims since it was established and therefore has a high claim settlement ratio
    3. There is an in-house claim settlement department which makes claim settlement easy and convenient
  • Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company enjoys a high claim settlement ratio which is more than 90%
    2. The company has won the Fintelekt-Insurance awards 2017 for its claim services
    3. The company has a wide variety of health insurance products suitable for every individual
  • Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company has settled more than 63,000 claims ever since it has been established
    2. The company enjoys a wide customer base of more than 23 lakh individuals
    3. A range of health and wellness services are offered by the company to promote healthy living
  • Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company offers the only Dengue care health plan at very low premium rates
    2. The HealthJinn application of the company allows you to buy a health plan from your mobile phones. You can also keep a record of your policy and make a claim through the application
    3. 90% of the claims are settled within an hour making the claim settlement process a breeze
  • HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company has insured more than 1 crore lives till date
    2. The company allows you 24*7 support for any type of query or grievance that you have
    3. The company responds to 90% of the cashless claims within 20 minutes of intimation. Reimbursement claims, on the other hand, are approved within 3 days
    4. The company has launched a wellness application which helps you track your health and live healthily
  • SBI General Insurance Company Limited
    1. The company has a widespread presence in India with more than 23,000 branches through State Bank branches and more than 5500 branches of Regional Rural Banks
    2. The company offers health insurance solutions to retail customers, corporate customers and even to the SME sector
  • The New India Assurance Company Limited
    1. The company not only operates in India but has its branches in 28 other countries of the world. The company, therefore, offers international standard to services to its customers
    2. The company has been rated AAA/Stable by CRISIL
    3. The company’s financial figures depict the company’s strong financial foundation. It enjoys a high solvency ratio of 2.13 with a global gross written premium of INR 7861 crores. The company’s net worth is INR 37,483 crores with an asset base of INR 60,437 crores as per the financial reports of the first quarter ending on 30th June 2019.

A list of all the top health insurance companies in India are mentioned on www.niranjanaassuranceservices.in from where you can take your pick of a health insurance product from the above-mentioned insurers and be assured that you would get the best health insurance coverage. This article provides you with a comprehensive overview of the entire health insurance plan so that you can enjoy comprehensive coverage with some of the best features and the premiums would also be affordable. Moreover, with the wide network of tied-up hospitals, your claims would be settled on a cashless basis and that too within the shortest possible time. So, choose your service provider from these companies and enjoy good health insurance coverage.

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