Are you thinking of buying health insurance online? No doubt you would have done an internet search, tried to compare the plans, submitted your personal information on various platforms who would have generated 50 options for you to choose from and yet at the end of it you are left with the question. Should I buy directly from these platforms which seem to offer lots of choice and might even be cheaper or should I trust my old agent who will come to my house (but only for selling, seldom otherwise)? Or should I buy health insurance from my bank? Or should I trust the brokers for my health insurance needs?

A customer wanting to purchase health insurance plan today in India is spoilt for choice. 25 lac insurance agents, more than 1.5 lac bank branches, hundreds of brokers and thousands of fintech’s offering everything from attractive price, convenience& service. And all of them are selling health insurance online. Few years back what the USP of online health insurance sellers was easy comparison, self-service, quick issuance. All of these are now available with every seller. The biggest differentiation used to be price but today that gap has also been eliminated for most good health insurance companies. So, whoever you purchase your health insurance from, it is going to be online. The right question to ask when purchasing health insurance is not whether offline or online, it is whether you are buying the right health insurance policy. And right insurance policy is matter of what is it that you and your family need and can buy basis the following three key factors:

1. Risk Profile: Risk profile of each individual and family is different. Its combination of the family structure (how many people, age group, nuclear or joint), their existing health status (pre-existing disease, family history, Genetic predisposition), their residence. This is an extensive exercise the outcome of which should be clear report on the risk factors in a customer’s life that can cause high medical expenses. Purchasing a health insurance without knowing your risk factors is like buying a lottery ticket. You can do it, but its unlikely you will derive value for money.

• Your insurance needs (current and future): Post establishing your risk profile, it is important to clear which risks are best covered by insurance and which product suits you. Some of the risks in your life you can avoid or lessen by changing your habits and lifestyle. This includes right eating, avoiding drinks or smoking etc. There are others which will need insurance. Also, it’s important to make assessment of future. A 15-lac sum assured might be good for a 75-year-old but is it good enough for a 25-year-old who might need the policy in 50 years’ time? A policy with no maternity cover might be cheaper today for a young couple but are they planning for a family in next couple of years and in which case would it be prudent to buy the cover now? Is a person in sales profile where they drive a lot and would therefore adding an accidental hospitalisation cover with very high sum assured at nominal price be a good addition? And should that be built inside the policy forever or is the need temporary and therefore a rider might be more suitable.
• Personal Financial situation: In an ideal world if a person has a health insurance policy, she should not have to worry about any health care expense. All the expenses of hospitalisation, income loss, recovery, medicine etc should be taken care of by health insurance policies. However, there is always a question of finances. How much is the person earning? What is his educational and professional background. A 25-year-old shopkeeper and 25-year-old software engineer can both earn Rs 50,0000 per month have very different earning patterns.

Evaluating risk profile of a person and his family, analyzing the needs and then deciding what policy to buy is a science and art which is very difficult to reduce to a formula. It requires knowledge & skills to identify risk factors which comes from education and skills developed after having worked in the industry. But equally important it requires judgement of client’s situation. There are always practical constraints. A telesales executive earning INR 25000 every month has constraints and so does an executive earning 10 lac per month. So how do we decide which policy to buy, which risks to cover, which ones to minimise (& how) and which ones to leave exposed. How do you trade-off between saving for the children’s education covering for a risk which might or might not happen? Ask yourself if the institution or the person selling you has the experience of managing hospitalisation, expense management, hospital processes etc. The right question to get the best health insurance policy for your family and giving them a cover is not whether to purchase health insurance online or offline. It is whether the advice you are receiving is high quality or not.