8th March - Women’s Day: the world celebrates the contribution of women to the society, family, and corporate sectors at large. People take up expressing themselves on social media platforms and talk shows. However, as unfortunate as this sounds - except for that singular day, women are largely sidelined in genres like finances, healthcare, etc.

The only positive side to this is that the world is changing. Women are being prioritised when it comes to aspects like financial tools, healthcare services, etc. Special attention is being granted to women to empower them financially and medically. One such prominent aspect is health insurance plans for women. Such financial aids are instrumental in ensuring the premium healthcare condition of women.

However, the question is - how relevant is insurance for women's health? Are they worth the investment? Do they come with any downsides? Well, because health insurance policies are a substantial and crucial financial responsibility, jumping into availing of one without considering its pros and cons would be unwise.

So, here, take a look at how and what health insurance plans are (in)effective -

Why are Women health insurance plans crucial in India in 2023?

India has been on the back foot for a long time when it comes to gender disparity. Women's health has been neglected for long. With looming issues like

  • child marriage,
  • multiple childbirth without expert supervision (over the desire of a boy-child),
  • specific health complications like anemia, breast cancer, and more

–women are actually the ones who require increased funds directed specifically toward them to cater to their medical conditions. Here’s a look at some number that throws some light on the recent women's healthcare conditions across the country -

Health and Gender Disparity Statistics
  • India ranks 140 out of 156 nations in terms of gender disparity (World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap Report)
  • In 2020, there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer. 685,000 deaths were reported, globally. (As per the World Health Organisation). This has become a dominant ailment across India with over 150,000 new cases being diagnosed each year.
  • The Maternal Mortality Ratio has declined from 113 in 2016-18 to 103 in 2017-19.
  • Anaemia affects double the number of women as compared to men across India. 57% of women between the age of 15 and 49 have been affected by anaemia in 2019-2020, which is a 3.9% raise from 2015 - 16.

While the data above showcases the grave health condition of women across the nation, this year’s budget comes off as a sigh of relief -

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The budget allocated to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), which is the nodal government department directed towards the welfare of children and women saw a raise in the budget for 2023-24. The budget received a raise of 1.08% of INR 267 crore of  INR 25,448.75 crore in 2023-2024 from INR 25,172.28 crore allotted in 2022-23.

With a majority of the women across the nation still financially unstable, significant funding becomes a prerequisite to ensure premium healthcare services to address their queued-up health conditions. Regarding this, the increased budget definitely is a big help. However, one still needs the financial safety net that is guaranteed by the best health insurance policies to ensure that not a penny is spent from one’s savings to cater to one’s medical well-being.

How to choose the best health insurance policy for women?

In general, health insurance plans from the best health insurers are a financial perk considering how it ends up helping insured individuals safeguard their savings in cases of any medical happenstances and their consequent treatments.

Surely enough more and more individuals have been availing of health insurance plans. And in response to this rising demand, insurers are building multiple customised insurance products that cater to specific sections of the population. Women health insurance plans are one such tailored insurance variant.

Here’s how you can choose the best plans on insurance for women's health, by looking into the features of the plan -

  • Best health insurance provider

Health insurance plans for women are a specifically tailored product that is relatively new in the market. So, it’s best to choose a credible health insurance provider that ensures the safety of your investment by guaranteeing an excellent claim settlement history. Make sure to check out the claim settlement ratio and incurred claim ratio of an insurance provider before you avail of a plan from them.

  • Mandatory maternity coverage

One of the most important aspects of any women's health concern is maternity complications. Be it issues with conceiving a child, ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, pre and post-natal care, delivery process complications, or post-delivery medical care - having access to premium healthcare services is a must. Unfortunately, such services do not come cheap. This makes it extremely difficult for women to have the required medical attention.

Add on to this the issue of child marriage followed by early conceiving of children leading to massive health complications. And now you know why you need a health insurance plan that comes with maternity coverage. Best choose a plan that offers coverage for a baby from day 1 too. Not all plans offer childcare coverage, so choose wisely. This would financially safeguard your child from multiple post-birth health complications and give them access to quality healthcare services without the worries of the funds required to avail of these treatments.

  • Coverage for women-specific ailments

With the best health insurance policies, you can always count on the fact that they will be covering a long queue of ailments. However, when you are on the lookout for the best women health insurance plans, you need to essentially choose a plan that offers coverage for the most important women's ailments, including -

  • Breast cancer
  • Gestational diabetes screening
  • Ovarian cancer
  • Uterus cancer
  • Anemia screening
  • Best network hospitals for women-centric treatments

When choosing family or individual health insurance plans, one of the primary aspects that need to be considered is the range of network hospitals that the insurer brings to the table. The more the number of partner hospitals, the better and easier access to premium healthcare services, which is a mandate during medical emergencies. This would also help with availing of a cashless mode of repayment.

Now, when choosing a women's health insurance policy, you need to take a look at the available network hospitals that have specialists to treat women-related ailments. This would make your health insurance policy specifically customised to cater to health concerns for women.

  • Best women-based health insurance add-ons

Health insurance add-ons are a crucial aspect of deciding which customised health insurance policy would best suit you. In the case of the add-ons with women health insurance policies, they make the policy even more tailored to suit one’s requirements. In such cases, you should be looking for add-ons like - maternity (in case your original plan is great in every other aspect but doesn’t have the maternity benefit), critical illness add-ons, etc.

Apart from the aforementioned determiners to choose the best health insurance policy for women, do also take into account the following basic features -

Best Health Insurance Plans for Women

HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS MATERNITY BENEFITS NEWBORN COVERAGE OTHER AILMENTS COVERAGE WPS (Waiting Period) CANCER COVER ADD-ONS AVAILABLE
Care Plus Will be covered with an optional cover Coverage for New Born is part of the maternity Sum Insured (SI) All the ailments will be covered (WPS may apply for certain conditions) including cancers if diagnosed post-purchase of the policy For Maternity: 2 years of WPS (with optional cover)
Other ailments: 2 years		 All types of cancers and modern treatments are covered if diagnosed post-purchase of the plan Maternity and newborn cover
Niva Bupa
Health Premia		 Cover with limits Newborn is also covered including vaccinations All the ailments will be covered (Wps may apply for certain conditions) including cancers if diagnosed post-purchase of the policy.
Note: Obesity, Bariatric surgeries, and Laser surgeries (if medically necessary excluding cosmetic surgeries) will be covered after 2 years of WPS		 Maternity: 2 years All types of cancers and modern treatments are covered if diagnosed post-purchase of the plans
Niva Bupa HeartBeat
Gold/Platinum		 Cover with limits Newborn is also covered including vaccinations All the ailments will be covered (WPS may apply for certain conditions) including cancers if diagnosed post-purchase of the policy Maternity: 2 years All types of cancers and modern treatments are covered if diagnosed post-purchase of the plans

*Note: if the person is diagnosed with an ailment (Eg: PCOD, Endometriosis) then this will be considered a Pre-Existing Disease (PED) and there will be a waiting period of 2 to 4 yrs, depending on the severity of the condition.

*Unfortunately, if the person has cancer (Breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterus cancer, etc) as PED then it is difficult to pitch a policy.

{In such cases, Care Freedom offers plans with Permanent exclusion of that particular cancer. However, if the cancer is diagnosed after the purchase of the policy, then the Care Freedom plan covers after 2 years of waiting periods.}