Things that Drive Up Your Health Insurance Premium

Nowadays, the health insurance policy has become an essential wealth-building tool. However, in order to avail the benefits of a health insurance policy, you need to pay a premium amount periodically (monthly/yearly). Apart from providing you benefits, the premium paid keeps the policy functional and operational. 

Premium paid is the only food for the health insurance industry, and thus the rising premiums have raised the industry significantly in the last two decades. The higher class was always a prime contributor to this industry, but in the last few years, the middle class has also started to focus more on buying holistic policies.

Also Read: Health Insurance Needs at Various Stages of Life

Today, customers buy policies based on their lifestyle, which increases their premiums. A few of those factors are age, pre-existing medical conditions, location etc. Let us look at all these components in detail: 

Age “Age is just a number” well, not anymore, especially not when it comes to determining your health insurance rate. The premium of a health insurance policy is somewhat inversely proportional to your “AGE,” which means the older you are more premium you must pay because increasing age increases the risk of falling ill. Therefore, when you buy a family floater or a separate plan for your parents, the premium is decided based on the age of the eldest member. 

1. Pre-existing medical conditions 

If you already have a medical history, it increases the chances of falling sick. Hence, the insurer will have to pass frequent claims. Therefore, with a higher probability, the premium also gets higher. When you buy a health insurance policy, you must disclose all your medical records to your insurer.

2. Profession 

As unrelated as it looks, your profession does contribute to lowering or increasing the premium of your health insurance. A policyholder who works in hazardous conditions like construction sites, chemical plants or industrial plants are more prone to chemical radiation, accidents, or high injury incidents. Hence, such individuals will pay high premiums for their health insurance. 

3. Family Medical History

An individual with a family history of illness always has a high chance of getting ill. It is evident that some diseases like diabetes, porphyria, hunter syndrome etc., are genetically transferred, making you more prone to have the ailment. Therefore, the higher the chances higher the health insurance premium.

4. Geographic Location 

The surrounding you live in contributes positively to your health. If you have less healthy food options or the location is more polluted, or there is a cultural aversion to exercise etc., then the probability of you falling sick is higher. Therefore, many insurers include your geographic location as a contributing factor in deciding the premium. 

5. Add-Ons 

One of the evident reasons for driving up the premium of your health insurance policy is the add-ons. Today, with multiple players in the industry, insurers are covering as much as they can in order to acquire more customers. However, there are still a few treatments or ailments uncovered, like critical illnesses, pregnancy etc. Therefore, to get all these treatments covered, you will have to take add-ons. These add-ons will add to your premium as well. 

6. Lifestyle and Injurious Substances 

The life you lead and the lifestyle you choose contribute majorly to how you will live your life. Confusing? Understand it this way, the healthier you eat, the more physically active you are, and the more you avoid intoxicating substances, the easier your life will be. Hence, insurers always try to find out the lifestyle you live and based on that; the premium gets decided. Anyway, injury or ailment caused under the influence of intoxicating substances does not get covered by health insurance.

The cost of medical care is rising, all thanks to medical inflations. In these scenarios, a hospital bill has the potential to empty all your savings. Therefore, safeguard yourself as soon as you can. A few extra rupees spent on health insurance premiums can save you from a health care bill which will definitely burn a hole in your pocket.