या this is one of the most important videos on our channel. Watching this video can literally save you 2 to 3 lakh rupees. Females should definitely watch this video for themselves, and males should watch it for their mothers, sisters, and wives. Now, when it comes to health, females’ needs generally differ from males’.
Critical illnesses such as cervical cancer and breast cancer are quite common in women, leading to higher mortality and morbidity rates. Additionally, females often have gynecological issues due to pregnancy, menopause, etc. Therefore, it becomes really important for females to have a policy that caters to their specific needs.
In this video, we will recommend four policies that cater well to the specific needs of females. But before we talk about those four policies, it is very important to understand what to look for in a health insurance policy if you are taking it for women. The first thing to consider is maternity cover.
Best Health Insurance 2024
Honestly, maternity cover is a bit more expensive than your normal policies. If you have a corporate policy, usually it includes maternity cover, but if not, and if you are planning to start a family in the near future, you must definitely have this cover in your policy. Also, it is very important for the policy to cover women-specific ailments such as breast cancer, gestational diabetes, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, etc.
Last year, it was very common for women to have PCOD and PCOS. According to some reports, over 35 to 40% of women in India have PCOD or PCOS. So, if you also have PCOD or PCOS, your insurance company will consider it a pre-existing disease and for any treatment related to it, you will have to serve a waiting period of two to four years. Therefore, obviously, we would want a policy where the waiting period is minimal.
Alright, so with these limitations, let’s find out the best health insurance plans for women in 2024. Before revealing the plans, a disclaimer: I will recommend three to four good insurances, but when choosing a specific insurance for yourself, you will need expert advice to determine the best match for you. But don’t worry, I will also recommend an expert for that.
Best Health Insurance for Women
Our first pick would be Niva Bupa Health Premier Gold. The best part about Niva Bupa is that the waiting period for pre-existing illnesses is quite short – it’s two years. If you have diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or any other pre-existing illness, the waiting period is just two years. Honestly, we have analyzed many policies and researched a lot, and two years is the best waiting period we have come across. You will get maternity cover ranging from ₹70,000 to ₹1 lakh. The waiting period for this is also two years. If you take a cover of ₹10 lakh, you will get a maternity cover of ₹70,000;
if you take ₹15 lakh, you will get ₹75,000; if you take ₹20 lakh, you will get ₹80,000; and if you take more than ₹30 lakh, you will get ₹1 lakh as maternity cover. Apart from that, there are no room rent restrictions, and it also offers 100% restoration benefits. This means if you use up your entire limit in one year, your balance will be restored, but you can only use this restoration once a year. Additionally, it also provides you with day care treatments, meaning if you go to the hospital for less than 24 hours for a minor surgery, dialysis, or chemotherapy, it will still be covered.
The only thing I don’t like about this policy is the no-claim bonus. Niva Bupa provides you with a 10% benefit each claim-free year, and I have seen policies that give you a 25% to 50% benefit as well. So, this is one thing where this policy lacks a bit, but for me, it’s not a deal-breaker, and this policy can definitely be considered under your final shortlist.
My next pick would be Aditya Birla Active Fit. Now, this policy is a bit weaker than the previous one, but obviously, its premium is relatively lower. The best part about it is that it offers great discounts if you are young, healthy, and do not have any pre-existing health issues. If you fulfill these three conditions, you can get great discounts on this policy. There are two variants of Active Fit:
Plus and Preferred. In the Preferred variant, you get maternity cover with a waiting period of three years. You can reduce this waiting period to two years by paying an extra premium. You get a cover of up to ₹40,000 for normal delivery and ₹60,000 for C-section. In the previous policy, there were no room rent restrictions, but in Aditya Birla Active Fit, the room rent limit is 1% of your cover if your cover is less than ₹5 lakh.
If your cover is more than ₹5 lakh, there are no room rent restrictions. Unlike Niva Bupa, the waiting period for pre-existing illness in Active Fit is four years, which I think is on the higher side. One cool feature of this policy is the travel protect cover, which is like travel insurance that covers your lost baggage, delayed checked-in baggage, trip cancellation and interruption, missed flight connection, etc., but each feature comes with specific terms and restrictions. Moreover, its sub-limit is ₹20,000. Now, many of you might be thinking that this policy seems a bit average compared to Niva Bupa, then why are we even recommending it?
Best Health Insurance Plans 2024
This is because there are very few options for women’s health insurance in the market. People will recommend you policies from Care and Star as well, but I would advise you not to go with either of these two. This is because Care insurance’s maternity policy, called Care, has an extremely high annual premium, almost three times the normal price, plus its pre-existing illness waiting period is quite long. As for Star, their policy, Star Women Care Health Insurance, although good with many features, has been facing issues with claim rejection recently, and their complaints have increased significantly. So, I would recommend you to avoid Star insurance.
Now, if we are not recommending Care and Star, then which policy should you choose? Before revealing our next pick, I would like to highlight one thing I mentioned at the beginning of the video, that you will need expert advice to finalize your policy, and our recommendation for that expert would be Ditto Insurance. I have personally taken my insurance policy based on their recommendation.
Ditto is an insurance company backed by Zerodha where you will get genuine advice, and that too for free. From my personal experience, I can tell you that you can book a free consultation call with Ditto, where an expert will guide you and tell you which policy is best for you. And yes, a free consultation call does not mean you will receive spam messages on your number. Unlike other companies, Ditto has a spam-free policy and has a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Google, which speaks for its credibility.
Our next recommendation would be Tata AIG Medicare Premier. Medicare Premier offers maternity benefits up to ₹50,000 for a boy child and ₹60,000 if it’s a girl child. The waiting period is four years. The good thing about this policy is that the waiting period for pre-existing illness is short – it’s two years. In most other policies, you get OPD cover from day one, but in this one, you will have to wait for two years for OPD cover.
Its waiting period is two years. Additionally, there are no room rent restrictions, and you get a 100% restoration benefit. Plus, you get a 50% no-claim bonus for every claim-free year, but the limit is 100%, meaning your cover can be doubled, but not more than that. So, all in all, it’s a good policy and can be considered a part of your final shortlist.
So, that’s it. If you need help finding the best policy for yourself, you can definitely book a call with Ditto Insurance for free. The link to book a free call is in the description of this video. Till then, stay safe!