While buying a health insurance policy, customers put a lot of stress on the premium amount they have to pay. Nevertheless, the sum insured is not the sole factor affecting the cost of their health insurance plan. Policy providers also check other aspects such as age, gender, pre-existing medical conditions, etc., about the insured individuals while deciding this amount. In this regard, insurers have now facilitated customers to check premiums easily by using their virtual health insurance calculators.
Let’s know the major factors that impact your premium amount.
Key Factors Influencing the Cost of Premium
Here are the major factors that affect the premium amount of a health insurance policy:
- Medical history
Insurers enquire about individuals’ previous medical records during the policy purchase. If they have a pre-existing illness or suffer from a particular disease, insurers charge a little higher premium amount.
- Age
With age, people become vulnerable to several diseases. Consequently, policy providers let younger individuals get the insurance policy at a lower cost than older ones with the same health coverage.
- Body mass index (BMI)
Body mass index has a positive correlation with the vulnerability to illnesses. Since increased BMI elevates the risk of cardiovascular diseases, breathing problems, and type-2 diabetes, people become more prone to needing medical treatments. So, insurance providers determine a higher premium for covering their medical expenses.
- Smoking habit
The habit of smoking heightens the risk of diseases like cancer, heart diseases, stroke, asthma and other respiratory ailments. Due to their higher propensity to getting sick, insurers provide medical insurance policy to smokers at a higher premium than a non-smoking individual.
- Geographic location
Sometimes a geographical location makes people more vulnerable to health hazards due to unfavourable climatic conditions, high pollution, food options etc. As a result, insurers take a higher premium amount against a health insurance policy for residents of certain areas.
- Type of cover
Health insurance plans are of two types: individual health insurance policy and family floater policy. As more than one person is secured under a family floater plan, this comes at a higher premium price. In this regard, individuals need to know that the premium of this type of policy significantly depends on the age of the most senior person and the number of people included in the coverage.
Willing policyholders can know how the change in the number of insured individuals influences the premium price by using health insurance premium calculators offered by Bajaj MARKETS, which is a diverse marketplace that enables prospective customers to generate a quote by providing necessary details.
- Profession
Some professions are more stressful or have a substantial health risk due to their hazardous workplace environment. As a result, they are more prone to seek medical treatment. For this, health insurance providers charge a higher health insurance premium.
- Co-payment facility
A health insurance plan with a co-payment facility lets policyholders get the coverage at a lower cost. This is because they bear a certain percentage of treatment costs from their own pocket.
In conclusion, the premium amount of a health insurance policy depends on all the factors mentioned above. To estimate the payable amount, individuals can use health insurance calculators from their preferred insurer’s websites.
