How Safe is it to Buy Health Insurance Online
As the medical treatments are getting costlier with each passing year, having health insurance has become a necessity rather than a luxury. Apart from allowing individuals to get proper medical care during hospitalization, medical insurance comes with various other benefits. These benefits of buying health insurance online include domiciliary hospitalization cover (at-home treatment if approved by a doctor), top-ups, personal assistance, and a cashless facility. The features and benefits vary from insurer to insurer and also depend on the premiums paid by the customer. Let’s know about “Buy Health Insurance Online” is safe or not.
With the online world becoming part and parcel of our lives, a lot of individuals also prefer purchasing their health insurance plans online. Almost all leading insurers offer the facility to perform online transactions safely.
Table Content
Benefits of Buying Health Insurance Online
As purchasing health insurance online comes with numerous benefits, it is becoming a preferred mode for most individuals. Some major benefits include:
Comparison of Policies is Easy
The very first benefit is available to compare the policies of all health insurance companies with a click of a few buttons. An individual doesn’t need to contact the agents of different companies or visit their offices to receive information. A lot of third-party portals also assist individuals by letting them compare the features, premiums, and insurance covers of different companies. This saves a lot of energy and time that is otherwise wasted while conducting the research.
The terms and conditions of policies from reputable companies are available in a detailed manner. A lot of websites also offer a free quote through their online tools. The comments and reviews further empower the individuals to make a well-informed decision while purchasing a scheme.
Simply put, the easy availability of information and transparency makes the screening process hassle-free.
Lower Premiums
Health insurance becomes cheaper in the case of an online transaction due to the absence of middlemen and agents. The insurance companies also cut down their administrative costs to a greater extent by executing their operations online. This further reduces the cost of the policies.
Safe Online Transactions
If an individual is purchasing the insurance through a reliable company, s/he need not worry about safety. The trusted insurers provide the online transaction through secure methods. These companies also rely on secured connections and encryptions to shield their customers from any form of cyber fraud. This also means that in case of an error, the insurer takes the responsibility itself. The payment modes offered by the health insurance companies include debit/credit card, net banking, and online payment wallets like Paytm and MobiKwik.
Online insurance v/s Offline insurance
This table compares the features of online and offline insurance:
| Online Insurance | Offline Insurance | |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency | The individuals can check all the information instantly. | The customer has to rely on the information provided by the agent. |
| Premium rates | Lower than offline insurance, as the agent’s commission is eliminated. | Higher because insurer administration costs and commission of agent are included. |
| Scope of Error | As the individual fills the registration form himself/herself, there are no chances of errors | On the other hand, the chances of an agent filling in the wrong information increase in the case of offline insurance |
| Privacy | Online registration also ensures that the privacy of the policyholder is maintained. | The policyholder has to disclose the information to the agent while purchasing the information offline. |
| Technical knowledge required | Basic knowledge of the internet. | No knowledge of the internet is required. |
| Choices | Plenty of choices and the ability to compare them instantly | A limited number of choices. |
All these points show that buying health insurance online is a hassle-free and economical process when compared to offline mode.
Tips to Safely Buy Health Insurance Online
To protect yourself from fraudulent activities, it is mandatory to follow some instructions.
- The very basic requirement is to purchase health insurance only from trusted names and avoid dubious websites that may offer extremely cheap plans.
- Use the services of portals that allow you to compare all the features of the different health plans from various insurers.
- A lot of policies come with co-payment clauses under which you have to pay a part of the expenses during the treatment. Check this clause thoroughly to avoid issues later. Sometimes, the term ‘co-insurance is also used for it.
- You must also go through the sub-limit clause of the policy, which is related to the maximum limit of hospital room rent and the limit on the treatment of specific ailments.
- You can cross verify the information of the insurance company from the insurer’s website in case of any doubt.
- Calling a customer support representative of the company is also a good practice to clarify all your doubts.
- Before making any payment, check for the SSL security certificate of the website.
- Keeping a screenshot of the transaction page is another essential way to avoid any issues in the future.
Facts that you must keep in your mind while Buy Health Insurance Online
You have power – Digitalization is a gift for us and as a person, if you are using the internet then there is a certain reason. Talking about “buying health insurance online is how safe”, I think you have the answer to it. The reason behind saying this is that you have the power of knowledge, you can understand and read things. If you are filing a form then you will definitely read the form and the internet is playing a vital role in the whole process.
Online Premium – Two things that this word tells, first is online premium payment, well, it is not a matter to worry because everyone secured their payment gateway with different securities. The first thing that everyone is worried about is their money and it’s really a matter of concern because if the payment gateway is bad then as an insurance company you have to face losses. Second thing is, Online Premium Amount, which is much less online than offline, and online you have also the option of comparing different plans of different insurance companies.
Time Saver – Buying a policy online is quite easy and also time-saving, in comparison to offline you can buy a health insurance policy online easily and there is no need to visit a separate cabin for submitting documents.
Lesser Paperwork – What used to happen earlier was that when someone went to get insurance, he need a lot of papers for verification and also have to fill out multiple forms, it take 1-2 days for completing the whole process. But now less paperwork, whatever form you have to fill, you’ll fill it online and it won’t take too much time.
Easy online assistance – The features that are much needed while buying health insurance, You do not understand many things while filling the form and at this time you need some help. Online assistance can make things smooth and easy for you while filling out the form online. Just a customer service that’ll brief you on everything about the form.
Conclusion
Most of the benefits linked to online health insurance make it a safer and preferred mode. You can also apply a blended strategy under which you can compare the policies online and purchase the best one through an offline agent. This will ease up the claim settlement process, as you may need to contact an agent during the process.
