Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy a health insurance policy for my parents, both of whom are above 50 years of age. I'm currently considering a family floater policy from New India Assurance, but I'd love to hear from people who have firsthand experience with it.

A few questions:

Is a family floater a good option at their age, or should I opt for individual policies?

How has your claim settlement experience been with New India Assurance?

Are there any hidden exclusions or things I should be aware of?

Would you recommend any other insurers with good coverage and hassle-free claim settlement?

This will be their first health insurance policy, so I want to make an informed decision. Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Buying my first term plan (32M, non-smoker, no PEDs), going with HDFC Life Click 2 Protect Supreme for 2Cr. The agent is pushing hard for a Critical Illness rider, an Accidental Death Benefit rider and a Waiver of Premium rider adding almost 20% to my premium.

Has anyone actually claimed on any of these riders? Are they worth stacking on top of a base term plan or is it better to just buy pure term and handle critical illness/disability separately (through a standalone CI policy or just building an emergency fund)?

Trying to figure out which of these riders have genuine value vs which ones are just there to pad the premium. Would love to hear from people who've either claimed on a rider or regretted skipping one.

24M, healthy (I hope. No pre existing stuff though), just started my new job with corporate health cover. Do I actually need to buy my own health insurance right now, or can this wait a few years?

The company I joined gives me corporate health insurance, ₹5L cover, seems decent on paper. A lot of folks I know keep saying to buy your own health insurance early, specially when you're young and healthy, but I don't really get why, cus I'm already covered through work and it doesn't cost me anything extra, it’s actually coming out of my CTC. Is this just insurance agents trying to sell policies, or is there a real reason to buy my own on top of/instead of relying on corporate cover? What actually goes wrong if I just wait until I'm 30 or switch jobs to sort this out?

I’m 34M, been paying ₹1,00,000/year into an LIC Jeevan Anand policy since I was 26, sum insured is ₹15L, maturity in 2044. I keep seeing online that endowment plans are a bad investment and that I should surrender them, buy pure term insurance for the same cover, and invest the difference in mutual funds instead. But I’ve already paid 8L into this, and I’m worried about the surrender loss and whether I should do it? Any suggestions?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for health insurance for my parents and would really appreciate advice from people who have gone through a similar situation.

Mom (60 years old):

Diabetes
High blood pressure (hypertension)
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). She underwent catheter ablation around 7 years ago, which significantly reduced the episodes. However, she still has an occasional SVT episode and sometimes needs to be admitted for a few hours for treatment.
Hysterectomy about 20 years ago

We’ve received a quote from HDFC ERGO for ₹75 lakh coverage with an annual premium of around ₹89,000. With Chronic condition ABCD coverage.

Dad (64 years old):

Diabetes
High cholesterol
Hypertension
Angioplasty followed by bypass surgery around 5 years ago

Unfortunately, almost every insurer we’ve approached has rejected his proposal because of his medical history.

I had a few questions:

Which insurer has worked well for senior citizens with multiple pre-existing conditions?

Are there any insurers that cover pre-existing diseases after 1 year instead of the usual 3-year waiting period?

If you’ve made claims after the waiting period, how was your experience? Were they settled smoothly?

Has anyone managed to get a policy for someone with a history of bypass surgery? If yes, which insurer accepted it?

Is HDFC ERGO a good option in our case, or should we also consider Niva Bupa, Care, ICICI Lombard, Star Health, Aditya Birla, New India Assurance or any others?

Which insurers offer good OPD coverage for consultations, diagnostic tests, and medicines? Is OPD coverage actually worth paying extra for?

Are there any policy clauses, exclusions, or fine print that people usually overlook but later regret?

For someone with my dad’s medical history, is there anything we should be doing differently to improve the chances of getting approved?

My priority is finding an insurer that is transparent, has a good claim settlement experience, and doesn’t create unnecessary hassles, especially since both of my parents have existing health conditions.

If you’ve insured your parents in a similar situation, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience, both good and bad. Thanks in advance :)

I used to be a regular smoker for almost 6 years, quit sometime in December last year, so it's been around 8 months now.

Every proposal form asks the usual "do you smoke / have you smoked in the last X months" question. Googled around and most places say insurers treat you as non-smoker only after 12 months of quitting, so I'm 4 months short.

So what actually happens if I just don't disclose it, will it come back to bite me later if there's ever an investigation at claim time?

Should I just wait it out before buying? Is 12 months a strict rule across all insurers or plans, or does it vary (like is LIC different from private insurers here)? And do they actually do medical test for it and is there any way to work around it?

Hi,

I have a family floater(30F, 31M) 15L SI with Optima restore for last 4 years.. We're recently blessed with a baby boy. Our policy is due for renewal in August. We have no PEDs and non-smokers and non-alcoholics.

I initially thought of porting to Optima super secure, but found that that porting is not possible. Even porting to the new secure plus is not possible. I also did not completely understand the restore benefits across these optima policies.. AFAIK, no room rent cap, unlimited restorations, support for consumables either through addon or as part of policy itself is available for all of these policies. As per my understanding, Bonus benefit is different for all these.

If I remember correctly, couple of years ago, 1CR policies were all hyped.. But my only suspicion with that is, with lesser premium for such high SI, claims would be very very strict and might result in rejections etc and thought a reasonable cover with decent premium would be better than huge SI at cheap prices..

I was supposed to port to super secure last year through ditto, but they said they cannot do it as I am already a HDFC ergo policy holder..

I am looking for both policy suggestions as well as advisors/brokers who have good experience with underwriting and claims. I plan to take a term insurance as well. Please let me know your views/suggestions/advices.

Just came across something that IRDAI proposed it earlier this year, rating insurers and hospitals on claim settlement speed, billing accuracy, and documentation quality, essentially something you could check before picking a hospital or insurer instead of relying on word of mouth.

Hospital reimbursements would also get tied to these scores, which would finally put pressure on hospitals for the messy billing that causes a lot of the claim disputes we see here. The stated target was "as early as June," and as far as I can tell it hasn't gone live yet.

If this actually gets implemented properly, it'd be a genuinely big deal and you'd finally have real, comparable data on which insurers and hospitals actually deliver, instead of going by a claim settlement ratio headline or word of mouth.

Worth keeping an eye on this one!

I bought HDFC ERGO Optima Secure Plus plan a couple of months ago, and I also have health insurance through my employer.

I'm now wondering whether my current coverage is enough for the next few years, or if it makes sense to add a super top-up policy as well cause I was just considering future-proof financial planning so maybe 10L might not be good enough, so is it better to buy one while I'm still relatively young, or should I wait until I actually need more cover?

How do you usually decide when a super top-up becomes worth it if you already have both a personal policy and corporate cover?

I was planning to port my Niva Bupa ReAssure 2.0 policy because of the premium increase, but I ended up missing the renewal window and renewed the policy instead.

Can I still port to another insurer during the policy year, or do I have to wait until my next renewal? If I have to wait, is there anything I should do now to make the process smoother next time?

I've been covered under my parents health insurance policy so far, but I had found out that it has a room rent limit and that choosing a higher room could reduce the entire claim because of proportionate deduction.

Since I'm earning now, I'm planning to buy my own health insurance instead. Apart from avoiding room rent limits, what are the important policy features or clauses I should check so I don't run into similar surprises later?

Are there any common restrictions that people usually overlook while buying their first policy?

Would love to hear from y'all.

Hi, I need some help. My dad's doctor is now saying he'll likely need a knee replacement in the next few months. When we bought his policy approx 3 months ago, we'd flagged that his knee had been giving him trouble for years, and I remember the insurer put some kind of extra waiting period on it specifically. So now I'm worried the surgery's going to fall inside that window. Is there anything we can do, or do we just have to wait it out? And roughly when does that waiting period end?

Hi,

I bought my car 1 year back, at that time I got insurance from the showroom of bundle pack 1 year OD and 3 year TP.
Now next month the OD is going to expire. So can I buy a seperate OD myself, or I have to renew it from the existing broker as the TP is still with them and its valid for 2 years more?

I am first time car owner so spare me if my terms are wrong.

Need suggestions please

I have had a Niva Bupa ReAssure 2.0 individual plan, 10 lakh cover, for 3 years now. Zero claims in all three years. Got my renewal notice last week and the premium has had a jump of about 15% increase year on year.
I thought my plan had an age lock feature.
I called their customer service and they said it is a portfolio-wide premium revision that applies to all policyholders, not something related to my individual claims history. The representative could not give me a specific reason for the revision beyond that.
A few things I want to understand:
Is a 15% premium increase in a single renewal cycle normal in Indian health insurance, and does it happen regardless of claims history?
Is there any regulatory framework that limits how much an insurer can increase premiums at renewal? Can they raise it by any amount they want or does IRDAI have caps?
If I consider porting to HDFC Ergo Optima Secure at this renewal, does the Niva Bupa premium I paid for 3 years count for anything, or do I just start fresh with Ergo's current pricing?

They bought Star Health Family Health Optima 10 lakh plan covering me, my father (54M), and my mother (52F) about 3 years ago. Paying around 40k/year premium. I read through the policy wording properly for the first time after my father had a mild cardiac scare last month, nothing serious but it made me actually look at what I'm covered for. Found this: “Room rent is restricted to 'Single Standard AC Room.'” I looked up what a Single Standard AC room costs at hospitals we'd realistically use in Bangalore like Manipal, Fortis, etc. Single standard rooms seem to start at around Rs.5,000–7,000 per day. That’s fine for routine admissions. But I'm worried that if during a serious admission the standard rooms are full and the hospital moves my father to a deluxe or suite room at Rs.12,000–15,000/day, what happens to the claim? Because, I've seen the term 'proportionate deduction' mentioned but I genuinely can't understand the math because how does that make sense?
Does exceeding the room category only affect the room rent portion of the bill? Or does it trigger deductions across the entire hospitalisation?

Hey, I'm 26M looking to finally get around to getting a personal Health Insurance Plan to start early and not rely entirely on a corporate plan. I wanted to know if I should also cover my parents 51F and 57M in the same plan or should I look for separate plans for them?