#1 Healthcare inflation
According to the Economic Times, inflation in healthcare is growing at a rate of 12 to 18%! This includes overall costs such as cost of medicines, hospital admission charges, cost of various treatments, medical advancements and so on.
Due to the rise in these expenses, your insurer too needs to increase your sum insured every year i.e. coverage to be able to cover for these costs when you make a claim.
This is primarily why there is consequently an increase in your health insurance premium too when you renew for the new policy year.
What you can do about it?
The bad news is that, given that this is directly related to medical expenses, and the required increase in your sum insured, there isn’t too much you can do about this.
However, the good news is that some insurers do offer renewal discounts and bonuses depending on your claim history.
So, check with your insurer (or just check your policy document) to see if you have any of these benefits in your plan. In case you have a health insurance with Digit – you can check your policy summary for the same.
However, yes, we do offer a cumulative bonus benefit for those who’ve not made any claims in the previous year. This means, we increase your sum insured without any increase in your health insurance premium! 😊
Think of it as a little reward for taking such good care of your health!
Additionally, we also offer an add-on cover where you can customize your plan to be inflation-proof by automatically increasing your sum insured by Rs 25,000 or Rs 50,000 every year!
This is irrespective of whether you’ve made claims or not, and the increase in premium for this benefit will only be applicable at the time of renewal.
#2 Your claim history
Some insurers do increase your health insurance premium depending on the number and amount of claims you’ve made during the year. However, this may not be the case with all health insurers.
To check whether your health insurance increases your premium based on your claim history, open your policy document and check your claims section, or the section where your terms and conditions are displayed.
If you have Digit’s health insurance policy, then you don’t need to worry as we don’t increase your health insurance premium based on the number or amount of claims you’ve made.
What you can do about it?
If your insurer does increase your premium based on your claim history, then there isn’t much you can do about it with your existing insurer as it is part of their terms and conditions.
However, you can consider porting to a different health insurer that doesn’t come with this condition. Porting is something you can only do during renewal, so evaluate other options and make your decision accordingly.
#3 Your age
You may already know this, that your health insurance premium is generally dependent on various factors, including your age.
In some cases, increase in age too can affect your health insurance premium on renewal. This is especially true for those touching 60 during or just before renewal.
What you can do about it?
You can’t turn back time and turn younger, but what you can do is be mindful about the sum insured you go for. If you’re relatively young, you probably don’t need a lot of coverage but say if you have a plan for your senior parents, they may need higher coverage.
So, always customize your and your family’s sum insured based on their age and healthcare needs as well.
#4 Change in coverage benefits
During your health insurance renewal, you can choose to make changes in your coverage and benefits, depending on your insurer’s terms and conditions.
You may choose to do this due to the fact you realize you need more coverage or due to change in personal circumstances too (maybe you plan to opt for a maternity add-on or have recently been diagnosed with a health condition that will need more coverage)
So, in case you do make changes such as opt for an add on or decide to increase your sum insured; then your health insurance premium too will increase based on the same.
What can you do about it?
The best thing to do in this case is to review your health insurance plan in detail, this way you can see what your coverage and benefits are, and if they make sense for your increasing health needs or not. You can explore and upgrade to other plan options too with your current insurer.
Another thing you could do is, compare other health insurance plans online – just to see if there’s any other plan out there that is better suited for your current situation.
#5 Your health and wellbeing
Now, you already know that the general case is that your health insurance premium will at least increase a bit due to inflation. However, most health insurers also consider how healthy you’ve been in the previous year and reward you accordingly.
For example: At Digit, if you haven’t made any claims during the year – we give you a cumulative bonus benefit i.e. we increase your coverage without any increase in your premium during renewal!
Similarly, some health insurers could also increase your health insurance premium on renewal if you’ve recently been diagnosed with an illness or diseases that will require more coverage.
What can you do about it?
The obvious answer to this, is to ensure you’re taking good care of your health! However, we do understand that life is uncertain and sometimes no matter how careful you are, things do happen!
One recommendation to benefit from advantages like cumulative bonuses is that you can perhaps avoid making small claims during the year.
For example; say you’ve got a fracture during the year – you can choose not to make a claim for the same (since the cost wouldn't be as high as well).
This way, you’ll have no claim history during the year and can get rewarded with an increase in your sum insured, without any increase in your premium.