What are long-term health insurance plans and what are their benefits?

 Having health insurance is your ultimate back-up plan against medical emergencies. In case a good diet & a healthy lifestyle fail to keep illnesses at bay, your health insurance policy will step in and help save the day. It will lend a financial helping hand and ensure you get the treatment you need, without ever worrying about the cost. 

Now, until recently, health insurance only offered coverage tenures of 1 year. This meant that policyholders had to renew their plans annually in order to enjoy uninterrupted cover. However, all that has changed with the introduction of long-term health insurance plans.

Not familiar with long-term health insurance plans? No problem! The following article will explain what they are and the benefits you could enjoy by purchasing these plans. Read on to know more!

What are long-term health insurance plans?

Well, the name is quite self-explanatory! They are medical insurance plans that offer multiple years of coverage. You can get protection for 2, 3 or even up to 5 years with one single premium payment.

What are the benefits of long-term health insurance plans?

1.    You don’t have to renew the plan every year!

This is of course one of the most significant benefits of a long-term health insurance policy. Having extended coverage alleviates the need to renew the plan year after year. With a normal plan, if you forget to renew the policy at the end of the year, the coverage comes to a halt and you are left uninsured. This is a problem you will not encounter with a long-term health insurance policy.

2.    Cost benefit.

When you buy a long-term health insurance policy, you are committing to the insurance provider for multiple years at a go. Keeping this in mind, most insurance providers will offer discounted premiums for long-term plans.

3.    Immune to price hikes

Health insurance premium are never constant. They can change every year and rise significantly over time. The IRDAI can affect a number of changes that could cause policyholder to shell out more money on annual coverage. However, with long-term health insurance plan, you pay for multiple years of cover at one go. This means that you are immune to any price hikes during the tenure of your policy.

4.    NCB.

While this is something you’ll have to check with each individual insurance company, most long-term health insurance plans have better NCB workings as compared to single-year plans. This is because these plans generally allow you to make a certain amount of claims in the year without losing out on your NCB discount. This is something you probably cannot expect with an annual policy.

5.    Pre-existing illness cover.

Again, this is something that needs to be checked with each insurer, but most long-term health insurance plans offer coverage for pre-existing illnesses. This is an amazing benefit so make sure you enquire about this feature when buying your plan.

Therefore, if you are thinking about buying health insurance, you should definitely look into long-term plans as well. They offer a host of benefits and offer good value for money. We hope this article has been helpful, good luck and all the best!