Health Insurance Plans for Students

Let’s just say that the millennials are much more “woke” in terms of personal finances and financial security boundaries these days, as compared to what the scenario was a decade ago.

While we can certainly hold the recent pandemic responsible for this increased concern by creating health scares, other factors have contributed significantly. In an attempt to boost their business and increase insurance penetration across the nation, health insurance providers have started holding online and offline seminars and webinars to spread awareness regarding the significance of health insurance plans for students.

And their requests and reach-outs haven’t fallen on deaf ears as more and more college authorities have started reaching out to health insurance providers requesting their awareness interventions and best-possible, affordable health insurance plans that would safeguard the financial safety of their students during times of medical distress.

Subsequently, students have been taking a keen interest in availing of policies from the best health insurance providers nationwide. However, why are we specifically discussing the student section of society in terms of health insurance? Why do they specifically require these policies? What kind of policies would suffice their medical purpose sans straining their pocket money? Are shared health insurance plans enough for them or do they require individual policies?

Here’s a look at the answers to some such critical questions -

Why should students avail of health insurance policies?

The pandemic was a wake-up call, reminding us how ailments do not discriminate based on the age of an individual. Across the years of lockdown, we witnessed the pandemic affecting people in the age bracket of 15 to 100. The fatal turn of events led to people of all ages losing their lives or becoming susceptible to major weaknesses that led to substantial health complications in the future.

On the other hand, apart from the pandemic, young adults, in their student life are also vulnerable to a multitude of critical illnesses following their lifestyle choices, career expectations, and peer/societal pressure. Such illnesses might include physical and mental ailments.

Considering the chances and possibilities of critical ailments and/or medical emergencies that the students are vulnerable to, they must find out a way to deal with it while safeguarding and protecting their parents’ financial stock.

Now, education demands a substantial chunk of the finances from their parents’ savings, and considering the significance that education holds over the future and career of the student, its quality should never be compromised. On the other hand, healthcare is equally crucial. However, for healthcare, the expenses made towards it can actually be taken care of sans putting any pressure on the savings made to date by the parents.

All that one needs to be is avail of a health insurance policy that would definitely come with a long queue of financial and miscellaneous benefits. Such plans would give them a financial security blanket during times of medical distress.

Heads Up: It takes an average person up to 5 hours to read & analyze a policy, and 10 hours or more to compare different plans and make a decision.

This is why we propose a better alternative - taking a 30-minute FREE consultation with Ditto’s certified advisors. We have a spam-free guarantee, and we’ll never push you to buy a plan. Don’t delay this - we have limited slots every day, so book a quick call here before they run out.

A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!

P.S. If you are still thinking about why should millennials avail of health insurance plans considering that they are fit and healthy (because they are young), here’s some food for your thought - availing of health insurance policies at a young, disease-free age would help them get an affordable premium to the best health insurance plans.

Moreover, even if (fortunately so), they do not have to bank on their health insurance plan due to some medical requirements, during these years,

1. they can get over their waiting periods,
2. enjoy cheaper premiums,
3. get high coverage sans paying extra due to the accumulation of their No-Claim Bonuses, and more.

Now that you know that health insurance plans for students are crucial, it’s time you get acquainted with the idea of which type of health insurance would serve them the best because even if it will be a cheap plan to avail now, this will still be a crucial financial decision that would cocoon their future medical care.

What type of health insurance plans can students avail?

Health insurance plans have multiple variants depending on the members included and the relation among them. While all individuals can choose any variant among the ones mentioned below, some variants are considered more suitable for students taking into account their specific requirements and financial & medical goals.

1. Group health insurance policy

As mentioned before, college authorities have been reaching out to the best health insurance experts who would

• Offer the necessary financial/insurance awareness, and
• Provide an option for group health insurance plans to be shared among the students.

The group health insurance plans so availed are affordable and hence perfect for students who are yet to kickstart their earning curve. Such plans also do not come with many customisations since it’s a shared policy among a variety of individuals with diverse medical requirements. However, that is perfect for students who are looking for no such particular coverage considering that they are fit and healthy.

“HOWEVER”: Group health insurance plans are cumbersome when it comes to health insurance portability. Thus, you could either lose out on your entire policy or go through a series of steps to port a plan that would hardly be worth a lot considering that it’s a shared health insurance plan. On top of this, even after porting the health insurance plan, you will need to customise it completely based on your individual requirements.

2.  Family floater health insurance plans

Usually, children are included in the family floater health insurance policy. They can be included in the family plans till they are 25 years old. This helps them still have coverage at an economically priced premium because a majority of the best health insurance policies are not even available to those below 18 years of age. Sharing a family health insurance plan with the parents is convenient considering that the health complications with the students are minimum are hence do not require a substantial sum assigned just to the medical needs.

“HOWEVER”: There is a reason why medical insurance plans for parents are kept separate. Considering their nearing or past senior years, they require considerable funds directed towards them only that would cater to their specific health complications. Moreover, if the child above 18 years ends up contracting any genetic/critical ailment or gets into a near-fatal accident, the lion’s share of the fund would get directed towards him/her, leaving the parent vulnerable to a severe financial deficit in case of any health issues within the same year. Moreover, health insurance plans for senior citizens and the incurred medical expenses are already on the high end. Including one more member in the plan would only add to the woes.

You can take a look at how the prices differ for the premiums -

(*With a slight raise in the premiums, you get to have total coverage of INR 60 lakhs, a dedicated plan for the child, and an undisturbed plan for the parents).

3.  Individual health insurance policies

Individual health insurance plans are always the right way to go for individuals of any age, specifically for those at a young age, without any pre-existing ailments. The advantages are multiple -

• Cheaper premiums for the best health insurance in the market
• Covered waiting periods for any and all ailments for when/if you actually need treatment for them.
• No chance of policy rejection
• An incredible line-up of features and benefits
• Coverage for mental ailments
• Confirmed accident coverage

Such individual health insurance plans are targeted to specifically cater to the medical requirements of individuals. And when there are no pre-existing ailments, they are easy to avail of and affordable to continue.

The best way to ensure quality health insurance for students would be to take up a group health insurance that comes at affordable premiums. And then avail of an individual plan that would be extremely useful in the long run. Before you turn 18, the family floater would safeguard your medical interests.

Even if you face any issues in porting your group health plan into an individual plan, you can skip worrying and still be covered under the family floater plan till you are 18 and the individual health insurance plan after you cross 18.

How to choose the best health insurance plans for students?

Health insurance policies targeted at students are available widely across the industry considering the rising demand for the same. Choosing a plan from these suggests taking into account a few features that would become the deciding factors. Here’s a look at some of these features and benefits that are mandatory while selecting the policy (you can read the details of these features from the links) -

1. Best accident coverage conditions
2. No room-rent restrictions
3. No copayment requirement
4. No disease-wise sub-limits
5. Maximum coverage
6. Minimum waiting period
7. Best health-insurance add-ons available
8. High no-claim bonus
9. Maximum pre- and post-hospitalisation coverage extends
10. Free annual health check-ups
11. Day-care treatment coverage
12. Convenient Claim settlement process
13. Domiciliary treatment coverage
14. AYUSH treatment coverage

What are the pros and cons of health insurance policies for students?

Pros of health insurance for students

• Building personal liability

When you have a health insurance policy that you are paying the premium for (or having your parents pay for it), you build a normal sense of liability toward how you live your life. You try and stay healthy by living a greener lifestyle so that -

• You do not end up acquiring any ailments that would require you to pay a high premium
• You stay healthy and out of the hospital and make minimum to no claims (minimum claims can also help you skip losing out on the No-Claim bonus if you have a Protector ride-on. With such a rider, if you claim below INR 50k or below 25% of the total coverage, your No-Claim Bonus remains undisturbed.). This would help you continue boosting your coverage without paying extra premiums.
• Affordable (read: cheap) premiums

With no pre-existing ailments, you pose as a much low-risk individual. You also are a healthy individual with comparatively low chances of contracting an ailment and getting subsequent long-term treatments that incur high hospital bills. Hence, as policyholders, insurers are more lenient towards you in paying low premiums free from any loading charges considering the low chances of claims across the year.

• Chances at boosted coverage over high No-Claim Bonus

Since the chances of you raising claims across the year are pretty low, there are higher possibilities that you will end up accumulating No-Claim Bonuses as an incentive of staying healthy. Such bonuses lead to boosted coverage bandwidth without any increase in premium from your end. By the time you start actually raising claims, your coverage would be ample, safeguarding your finances during medical emergencies.

• Coverage for psychological treatments

No matter how much we avoid talking about this, psychological distresses among young adults as a result of career pressure, parent expectations, and peer ambitions - is an undeniable truth. Depression, PTSD, bipolar disorders, and anxiety attacks - all of them are pretty common among students in their young years. And the consequent treatment of these issues is a mandate for maintaining a healthy mind. With the ideal health insurance plan, coverage for such medical treatments becomes easily available.

• Cashless mode securing no immediate finance requirement

By now, you must know that a cashless mode of insurance repayment is always preferred over the reimbursement channel. You would not want to run around to withdraw cash during a time when your loved one needs your absolute support during medical emergencies.

This runs specifically true for students who are already running low on cash considering the absence (or minimum) source of income. On top of that, if during a medical happenstance, they have to lose their cool worrying about the cash to pay off the hospital bills, that would be a major and redundant loss of mental and physical strength. During this phase, it is the cashless mode of payment for health insurance policies that helps them out.

• Coverage for accidents

Young age, cars, trying to be cool, and Michael Schumacher are never a good combo. However, the bash young days are too filled with rebellious ideas, which makes accidents a high possibility. Under such circumstances, the highest quality treatments can become accessible thereby nursing you back to health over the best health insurance policies that offer coverage for accidents right from Day 1 after the purchase of the policy (without any waiting period involved).

Cons of health insurance for students

The only drawback to availing of a health insurance policy for students is the financial component involved. Since students are busy caught up in their studies, there are low chances of them earning something. Even if they are, it would be freelance work or an internship that yields minimum payment. Relying on this pay to feed off the premium is a difficult situation.

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However, there are a few solutions that you can take up -

• Save up monthly: Take a section out of your pocket money and/or your stipend and freelance pay and save it. Use the same to pay off the premium during the time of your health insurance renewal.
• Take help from your parents for a few years: Considering that you are just walking into your adult years, your parents will be more than willing to purchase your health insurance plan and pay off the premiums till the time you become financially capable. And if you are thinking about not relying on your parents for the premiums, remember availing of the plan is much more important. You can always pay back the amount later when you start earning!

Best Health Insurance Plans for Students?