How to use Moneycontrol-SecureNow Health Insurance Ratings

The parameters

Moneycontrol-Securenow Health Insurance Ratings framework looks at health insurance from three broad lenses — price, product features and claims experience.

Policies that are cheaper consistently across age cohorts that we have chosen get rated up. In terms of features, policies that enhance the health insurance coverage get rated up whereas policies that have restrictive clauses that increase the out-of-pocket expenses for the insured customer get rated down.

In terms of claims, policies offered by insurers that have a higher settlement record with a faster turn-around time and fewer complaints on claims get rated up.

Price and claims get a weightage score of 25 each and features get a collective score of 50.

Policies that score at least 65 marks are rated ‘A’ policies. Typically, these are policies that will have most of the essential features that we have identified.

The rest fall under the ‘B’ category.

Policies that fare badly on most of the metrics identified fall into the ‘C’ category.

Now, the big question: How should you look at these ratings and use them to pick your health insurance policy? Or check if your current insurance plan makes the cut.

How to go about it 

To start with, sift through ‘A’ rated plans that will have policies that have fared well on most parameters. But if the universe of ‘A’ rated plans don’t meet your budget then unpack plans from other categories. Instead of going for the cheapest, choose what’s affordable for you and then see features you can compromise on.

For example, if you pick an affordable plan and it comes with a four-year waiting period, and you are a young and healthy individual with no pre-existing condition, a higher waiting period will not hurt.

However, if the policy also comes with sub-limits on room rent and doesn’t have a good claims settlement record, you need to move to the next affordable plan and unpack the details.

While ‘A’ rated plans will come packed with most of the essential features, you can just as well find your fit in the lower category plans. Unpack the details of the plan and look for features that you can do without or the ones that won’t increase your out-of-pocket expenses in case of hospitalisation.

Spend some time going through our ratings and bring home the plan that suits you the best.