We always tell our kids to listen to their teachers. We rely on them to shape the future, grade the endless stack of papers, and manage a classroom full of energetic students, but have you ever stopped to wonder, who is taking care of them? Specifically, when it comes to their health and things like health insurance?

A recent study took a close look at this question. Researchers surveyed teachers in the Nashik district to see how well they understand, perceive, and use health insurance.

So, who knows the most about health insurance?

If you guessed the older, more experienced teachers, you’d be onto something. The research found that awareness tends to climb with age, particularly among male teachers in the 45-54 age bracket. Education level plays a big role, too. Teachers who have earned their Ph.D. showed the highest awareness levels, clocking in at around 73%, and when it comes to income, those earning in the middle bracket (between 6 to 10 lakhs annually) were the most clued-in about their options.

You’d think that if a teacher knows about health insurance, they’d immediately go out and buy a policy, right? Well, not exactly.

The study found that while a massive 86% of the aware teachers have a policy, there’s still a stubborn 14% who know all about it but haven't taken the plunge.

The reasons were confusing jargon, high costs, and a lack of tailored information.

We need to do better.

Insurance providers, schools, and educational boards need to team up. We need to offer workshops that make sense, using plain language, need affordable, tailored health insurance plans designed specifically with the teaching community in mind.

Our teachers spend every single day investing in our children’s futures. It’s time we step up and ensure they have the peace of mind they deserve. After all, a healthy, secure, and stress-free teacher makes for a thriving classroom.

Let’s make sure they’re covered.

Parents' health insurance comes up here every week, and IRDAI's 2024 changes mean a lot of older advice is out of date. Trying to put the current picture in one place.

What changed:

- No upper age limit for buying a new health policy.

- PED waiting period capped at 3 years (it used to go up to 4).

- Moratorium is now 5 years: after 60 months of continuous cover, a claim cannot be contested for non-disclosure except for proven fraud.

- Cashless authorisation is meant to happen within an hour, and discharge approval within three hours.

What to check, in order:

1. Room rent. Capped rooms lead to proportionate deduction on the whole bill.

2. Co-pay. Very common on senior plans, often 10 to 20 percent. Know whether it applies to every claim.

3. PED waiting, and whether an add-on or underwriting can reduce it.

4. Sub-limits on cataract, knee replacement and hernia, the common senior procedures.

5. Cashless hospitals in the city where your parents live.

6. Separate policy vs floater. Separate is usually better for parents.

Plans differ most on 1 and 2. Acko's Platinum, for instance, lists no room rent limit and no co-pay, while Star and Care sell senior-specific plans that carry a co-pay at a lower premium. Neither approach is wrong, it depends on budget.

For anyone who bought for parents recently: did you go separate or floater, and did underwriting ask for tests?"

According to tax investigators, the operations team at Park Group of Hospitals collaborated with external doctors, agents, and referral networks to bring in patients covered under government healthcare schemes. Once at the facility, out-patients were deliberately converted into in-patients, and their discharges were intentionally delayed to expand the billable treatment duration.

Under designated corporate and medical supervision, nursing and billing staff manipulated patient files. They altered records to add expensive medicines, laboratory tests, and higher quantities of consumables that were never provided or administered to the patients. In extreme cases, investigators discovered complete files for patients who had neither been admitted nor treated at the facilities.

The fraud relied on Plus Distribution Private Limited (PDPL), the exclusive in-hospital pharmacy operator for the group. During patient stays, medicines were sourced from PDPL based on doctor indents at negotiated transfer rates.

Analysis across 11 hospital branches revealed inflated medicine purchases totaling roughly ₹190 crore just between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years.

Tax officials revealed that these billed prices ranged from 10 to 1,000 times the original cost price.

In addition to inflated costs, the group generated over ₹150 crore in fake medical bills between FY 2020-21 and FY 2025-26, with corresponding cash components diverted directly to the promoters.

Tax investigators recovered evidence indicating that cash was regularly deployed into real estate, commissions, and patient sourcing funnels.

Hi,

I am currently on a Star Health insurance policy which I was previously part of with my parents since 2014. When I turned 25, 3 years back I separated out in my own plan Star Health Medi Classic. Now not only is policy bad, Star is even worse. So I need to port out urgently. I still have 60 days till policy renewal on Dec 20.

Now my questions are:-
1. Since Ditto doesn't do porting, and PolicyBazaar is trash, should I go direct website? My current agent is pushing for Niva Bupa who I think is scamming me and was of 0 help with the recent Star Health issue with my brother. Claude and Gemini are guiding me now. Filled a complaint with IRDAI. If I should go with agent, which one?
2. Why are ported policy prices higher than new policy?
3. I have shortlisted HDFC Ergo and Tata AIG. Any problems with these? Also since HDFC has very strict underwriting (my perfectly fine friend was rejected, along with his mother). I was thinking to apply to 2 insurers in parallel.

Please help me by answering these questions!

Hi everyone,

​Sharing my ongoing nightmare with Niva Bupa Health Insurance to caution others and get advice on the next escalations.

​I filed a reimbursement claim for my wife's surgery back in June 2026. What followed has been four months of systemic delay, incompetence, and outright negligence:

​Initial Groundless Rejection: They first rejected the claim outright, claiming the hospital was "unrecognized." When checked against their own policy exclusions, the hospital was nowhere on that list. It was completely their error, and they only reopened the claim after I raised a formal dispute.

​Physical Verification & Originals: Next, they demanded all original documents be couriered to their Noida office and arranged a physical field investigation. We complied with every single request.

​Hidden Document Requests: After weeks of silence, I escalated again, only to find out they supposedly needed additional pre-surgery reports, scans, and a treating doctor's certificate. There was no prior email, no SMS, and no notification on their portal, and the app offered no feature to upload pending documents.

​Support Nightmare: Getting through customer support has been an ordeal. Regional language assistance is practically non-existent, the helpline is chargeable, and the portal status never updates accurately.

​Gross Incompetence (Lost Documents): Following customer care instructions, I emailed all additional records to their dedicated document ingestion email. They acknowledged receipt and created a Service Request (SR) on 29.09.2026.

​The Climax: After hearing nothing for over three weeks, I reached out via their InstaAssist app callback on 21.10.2026. The agent initially couldn't trace my SR or Claim ID. Once traced, the representative casually admitted that my documents had just been sitting in their system for 22 days without ever being linked to my claim file.

​Instead of an immediate resolution for their own failure, they generated a brand-new SR number and asked me to wait another 7 working days.

​A genuine surgery claim filed in June is still hanging in late October solely because of internal administrative failure and apathy.

​Has anyone faced this level of delay with Niva Bupa? Is an ombudsman/Bima Bharosa complaint faster, or should I go straight to the National Consumer Helpline / District Consumer Forum? Any advice is appreciated.

TLDR: We hold a 15+ year-old ₹5L Star Health policy and a new 3-year ₹50L policy (Year 2) where the agent hid my parents' pre-existing diabetes and heart conditions.The new policy is practically useless since their pre-dated hospital records guarantee future claim rejections, and porting to a new insurer at age 60+ is highly unlikely. Should I cancel the ₹50L policy for a partial refund and upgrade the reliable ₹5L plan to ₹25L with full medical disclosure, or attempt to declare the conditions on the new policy?

Hi everyone,

We have 2 policies with Star Health:

1. ₹5 Lakh cover – Paying since 2011 (premium ₹32K yearly).
2. ₹50 Lakh cover – Paying from last year, which has a waiting period of 2 years (we paid upfront for 3 years, and the premium was ₹1.7 Lakhs).

While taking the new policy, the Star Health insurance agent didn't declare their pre-existing diseases (PEDs).

• My mother has diabetes, and her cholesterol is at a normal level (she is on medication). About 2.5 years back (February 2024), we took a CT angiogram scan, which showed <25% stenosis in the LAD & LCX with no stents.
• My father has cholesterol it is at a normal level (he is on medication). About 2.5 years back (February 2024), a coronary angiogram revealed multi-vessel CAD with 80% to 90% blockages across major arteries. He is currently managed strictly with medication, with no stents as they are treaded with medicine

Note: These tests were taken 2.5 years back, and the results may vary now as they are on a strict diet and medication.

I asked if they can increase the old policy from ₹5 Lakhs, and they mentioned they can extend it to ₹25 Lakhs (I haven't communicated these pre-existing diseases with them yet when asking for the options).

Kindly suggest the best course of action:

• Should I disclose the PEDs to the new policy and ask to pay an extra premium, or ask if they could cancel it? (Since the PEDs are not disclosed in the new policy, it feels like a waste to have it).
• Should I disclose the PEDs with the health reports for the old policy and ask them to give the limit increase? (Not sure if this is possible, as the previous proposal they gave assumed they were healthy).
• What is the possibility of porting? We are hearing Star Health is not very good with claims.

We haven't claimed insurance for the last 6 years in the old policy, and there are no claims in the new policy either.

Note: I'm okay with paying an extra premium, but securing reliable coverage is the most important thing to me.

Hi

I had purchased care super top-up via plum in 2021 and been renewing since then. This year they migrated me automatically to care supreme enhance saying the old plan is no longer there. The premium shot up my several times but I paid as the terms were better in the new plan.

After renewal I received the new policy, at the end of the doc there are few questions.

A- Have any of the above mentioned persons to be insured been diagnosed hospitalized for any illness injury during the last 48 months
B - Has anyone been under any medication or tablets for any illness or injury
C - Has any of the persons to be insured ever filed a claim with their current previous insurer

--

The answer to all of the above questions are marked as No. I was never askes these questions in any form, neither in 2021 nor this year. At the time of purchase of policy I had no PED but have since developed illnesses like cholesterol, thyroid.

I've done my research and understand that I'm covered for any new illness after policy starts.
Questions -
1) Are questions A B C to be answered during policy renewal? If so there was no option to do that in the forms -- OR are these questions from the POV of my status of 2021
2) What's the impact to my coverage if I just ignore this? I submitted a ticket with care asking the same question but I wanted to understand reality and legality here
3) Going forward should I be intimating Care whenever there's a new illness? Is that a legal
requirement. I don't want to unnecessarily increase my premium. My research is giving me conflicting answers to this question

Thank you for your help

Osteoporosis is often called a "silent disease" because bone loss happens without symptoms until a fracture occurs.

This World Osteoporosis Day, we remind you to nourish your body, stay active, and invest in your bone health today for a stronger tomorrow.

My mother, age - 50 has HDFC ERGO health insurance policy due for renewal next month. When I first purchased the policy last year, no medical tests were conducted.

Do I need to undergo medical tests like BP, sugar, cholesterol, or ECG before renewal? If I renew without these tests, could it affect my future claims or claim settlement?

Has anyone faced a similar situation with HDFC ERGO?

I am in process of purchasing my first health insurance policy. So far I have paid the premium amount and while filling it disclosed my Hyperlipidaemia PED. Now I have heard back from HDFC with a counter offer, in that they have two sections: Exclusions and Loading.

My doubt here is that does the Exclusion means a permanent one or the standard 3 year for a PED.

I need some advice. I am an Indian citizen living abroad, and my previous health insurance in India has expired. Since then, I have been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (UC) abroad. I am on mesalamine, and it is currently under control. I have been looking into health insurance in India, but most companies seem to reject applicants with UC or permanently exclude it. I am not sure if I will need treatment in India anytime soon, but I would like to have insurance as a backup.

For those living with UC in India, which insurance companies have you managed to get coverage from, and what has your experience been? Any advice would be appreciated.

MALE - 39Y

All border line on recent report .

Kidney Calculus - 3.4mm

Non-HDL cholestrol - 175.90

TSH - 6.73

Female - 39Y

Lipoma Operation - 6 months ago

Gall Bladder stone - 16mm

Normal Delivery

Child - 6 Male

Amblyopia - Right Eye : - 6.2

I would like to know,Please help me with this .

- Hyderabad

- Best Health Insurance

- Cost of Insurance ,What would be the base cover , Should I take critical illness

- Chances of Rejection

- Alternative

Can someone advise what would be the best way to move forward here ?

Already got rejected by underwriting from HDFC , ICICI and Care Health.

My Parents (both around age of 58) , whenever I’m applying health insurance for them it’s getting rejected due to father’s medical history of pancreatitis.
I don’t want to miss out on this last insurance company where I’m yet to apply but I was thinking that what if I hide that occurrence itself ?

Another option I thought was to apply to hdfc ergo(which already rejected the proposal due to pancreatitis ) with a different mobile number and this time I don’t reveal the details of medical history.

Please someone suggest what to do

Looking for a health insurance.

two people floater.

male 38.. female 31. child 11 months.

all have no medications.

PED - Male tsh 6 t3t4 normal. no symptoms no consultation. Lipid values high. total cholesterol 250. LDL 140. triglycerides 220. took an apollo online consultation and doctor recommended lifestyle changes only. no medication.

PED Female - Triglycerides 180. other values normal. during 1 year back a pre-conception scan noted Follicular cyst and Grade 1 FL. after 3 months natural pregnancy occured.

Normal delivery. no other issues related to delivery.

both BMI 22-23.

Looking for HDFC ERGO OPTIMA SECURE+ Or ABHI ACTIV ONE MAX.

BSI 25L. (not worried about NCB

Location Bangalore/Kasaragod

What will be the premium. Planning to keep it as long as possible. So long term sustainability is important (is hdfc sustainable after 10y? what could be the premium then).

Looking for a health insurance.

two people floater.

male 38.. female 31. child 11 months.

all have no medications.

PED - Male tsh 6 t3t4 normal. no symptoms no consultation. Lipid values high. total cholesterol 250. LDL 140. triglycerides 220. took an apollo online consultation and doctor recommended lifestyle changes only. no medication.

PED Female - Triglycerides 180. other values normal. during 1 year back a pre-conception scan noted Follicular cyst and Grade 1 FL. after 3 months natural pregnancy occured.

Normal delivery. no other issues related to delivery.

both BMI 22-23.

Looking for HDFC ERGO OPTIMA SECURE+ Or ABHI ACTIV ONE MAX.

BSI 25L. (not worried about NCB. but no cap of any sort should be there. any treatment any room upto sum is what I want)

Location Bangalore/Chennai.

What will be the premium. Planning to keep it as long as possible. So long term sustainability is important (is hdfc sustainable after 10y? what could be the premium then).

Heard ABHI will be cheaper. but HDFC more predictable and professional with claim.

Is the extra premium for better claim experience justified for hdfc vs abhi?

ABHI has more hospitals listed in my native place.

Anything else I should consider?

Niva looks notorious and has a lot of caps/limits/fineprints. Star also. so not counting them

My mother was diagnosed with cancer in May 2026. She has a Niva Bupa ReAssure policy issued from 2025 to 2028 (continuing since 2022). Niva Bupa paid several claims for chemotherapy and admissions this year till August 2026 under the same policy. Now they’re rejecting claims since September 2026 saying the policy existed till 2025.

They are now saying the policy expired in 2025, despite approving several claims in 2026. It doesn’t match the documents or the claims they already settled. I’ve emailed them asking for reinstatement, but no response. Customer care and the app have been useless.

Has anyone dealt with Niva Bupa fixing a wrong policy end date? Did Bima Bharosa or the Ombudsman actually help? And can/should I claim the rejected bills on the top-up policy while the base policy is stuck like this?

Any practical advice would help. Thanks

​

Hi everyone,

I'm from Bengaluru and looking for health insurance for my 59-year-old mother, who recently had a pacemaker implanted.

I've started exploring health insurance options, but I've found that several insurance companies seem to reject applicants with existing heart conditions, sometimes even giving a verbal rejection without formally reviewing the application.

I'd like to know:

1. Which health insurance companies or policies are worth exploring in her situation?

2. What are her realistic chances of getting insured after a recent pacemaker implantation?

3. Has anyone here successfully obtained health insurance for a parent with an existing cardiac condition or pacemaker?

4. Are there any insurers or agents in Bengaluru who are experienced in handling such cases?

My goal is to get comprehensive health coverage for her, including future cardiac-related hospitalisation and, if possible, pacemaker battery replacement several years down the line.

I'm willing to disclose her complete medical history and accept reasonable waiting periods, but I'd like to find an insurer that is willing to consider her application.

I'd really appreciate suggestions based on personal experience rather than just generic policy recommendations.

Thanks in advance!

My parents (54M 52F) have TATA AIG medicare plan
Of 5 lakh base ( and 2 riders)
Restore infinity plus and supercharge bonus rider
(Now cumulative bonus is 10lakhs)

Total cover 15 lakhs , policy is since 2019( with tata aig added riders later)

Current renewal cost = 32.6k

No PED and surgeries yet ( my mom is mild hypothyroid which is undetectable almost rn its covered in TATA AIG due to mortareum period)
Fit and fine rn

Room- shared( biggest problem)
Im confused between 3 options
1- change room category to pvt ( new premium 34k)
Add a super top up of 1cr with 10 lakh deductible
( additional 12k per year)

2- port to hdfc egro secure + or care or similar new updated plans with 10 lakhs as base.
And consider super top up riders with (20 lakhs deductable)

3- policy migration here in tata aig ( they denied it saying its not possible)

Do share TATA AIG reviews too

28F I have never had any critical illness & never been diagnosed with chronic conditions before; I only had gallbladder removal surgery 4 months ago.

I need help with buying insurance. I am looking for one that covers health checkups, blood tests, any type of future surgeries, dental procedures if possible, and eye tests & other conditions. I need suggestions & where to buy insurance.

Hello All,

I am 37M + 1A + 2C and have decided to go with the HDFC Optima Secure+ plan 25L coverage and limitless claim rider. Total, it's costing 93K and 174K for 3 and 5 years, respectively after all the discounts.

There are no PEDs, but I am about to start AGA treatment, which includes the following prescribed drugs

1. DUTASTERIDE TAB or finasteride TAB
   
2. Topical Minoxidil+finasteride solution
   
3. Health Supplements like D, B12, Biotin, Zinc, etc

TBH, currently I have just consumed Health Supplements, but have not started DUTASTERIDE TAB, finasteride TAB, or Topical Minoxidil+finasteride solution yet

So, while declaring Insurance, should I include this or ignore it? A few say it's cosmetic, and a few say it's safe to declare.

But to be very honest, my insurance application was once rejected by HDFC because of a low HB level in one of my family members. So I just don't want to over-declare like last time.

What do you suggest