3 key reasons to renew your policy on time!

At the time of buying a health insurance policy, you must have compared at least half a dozen options. Having a health insurance plan in your pocket does provide you with a sense of relief, at least from the financial perspective. Most of the health insurance policies come with a validity period of one year. Once the validity is over, you cannot claim anything on it. You will have to renew your policy to avail of its full benefits. But it has been seen that a lot of people do not care a lot about renewing their health insurance policy on time. There are some disadvantages of not renewing your policy on time. Through this blog, we will help you know about a few of them.

You will lose your NCB

In any insurance policy, you get a No Claim Bonus for not making even a single claim throughout the policy period. The bonus is given in the form of a discounted price or hiked sum insured amount at the time of policy renewal. But, there is a condition. You have to renew your policy before its expiry date to avail of your no claim bonus. So, how much is the NCB usually? Well, it can be between 10 and 50 of your policy’s sum insured amount. For example, if your sum insured is 5 lacs INR, and the NCB is 10 percent, then the sum insured for the next policy period would become 5.5 lacs INR.

Likewise, if you do not make any claim for two straight years, the company might offer a higher percentage of NCB. If the NCB is increased to 20 percent, the sum insured for the third year will become 6 lacs INR. So, this is how it works. Considering the rising medical and healthcare costs in today’s times, losing your NCB can be a significant disadvantage. For this reason, you must renew your health insurance policy on time and enjoy its full benefit.

You will again have to deal waiting period

In every kind of health insurance policy, there is a waiting period. In this period, the insurer will not accept any claim made from your side. The period varies between 30 and 90 days. If you fall sick within this period or have to undergo any treatment, you will have to pay from your pocket for the expenses. No doubt, it’s a major disadvantage that every policyholder has to face. But, the waiting period is applicable only for first time buyers. When you renew your existing health insurance policy, you do not have to deal with the same issue once again. For this reason, you must renew your current policy on time and say goodbye to the waiting period.

Your pre-existing illness

At the time of buying a health insurance policy, if you are already suffering from an illness, the insurance company will not cover it right from day 1. There will be at least 3 to 4 years of waiting period on it. Once the policy expires, and you fail to renew it on time, the waiting period will start all over again. They will not count the period of your lapsed policy. Once your existing policy expires, once again, you will have to go through the medical tests. In those tests, whatever illnesses or health issues are found, they will be covered only after the waiting period is over.

So, those are the three primary reasons why you must renew your health insurance policy on time. Besides saving your money, you can save a lot of time too. Rather than buying a new policy and going through the time-taking procedures all over again, it is better to renew the existing one through some simple steps.