Top 5 Health Insurance Companies In India

Top 5 Health Insurance Companies In India

Health insurance, which is popularly known as medical insurance is a type of insurance policy that offers comprehensive protection against expensive treatments so a person can get quality treatment whenever required. It protects you from paying heavy medical bills when you are injured or have fallen ill. Just like other insurance policies, you need to select a plan and agree to pay a definite amount as a premium. In return you will get several benefits of owning a health policy.

When it comes to buying health insurance either for you or for family, you will come across many doubts; like how much insurance is sufficient for you? Where to buy? Whether you can afford it or not? Which one to buy? Which is the best health insurance company?

According to IRDA report 2012-2013, there are 17 private general insurance companies, 4 Public Sector biggies and 4 individual Health Insurance companies.

{Source: IRDA report 2013-14}

As there are many health insurance companies, it becomes quite difficult to choose the best out of them, but we will make it easy for you. Here, we guide you through the top 5 health insurance companies in India based on their past performances and claim settlement ratios. Most of the health insurance companies offer separate policies for individual, family, senior citizen, etc. When you select a health insurance policy, you must select the best health insurance company in India with favorable reviews. The policy should compulsorily cover hospitalization expenses, surgery fee, medicines cost, day care treatment, nursing allowance etc.

1. Apollo Munich Health Insurance 

Apollo Health Insurance Company provides much acclaimed health insurance policies and best cashless facility.  On choosing the individual health insurance plan, the consumer will get benefits like restore benefits, no claim bonus and for family health insurance, there are family plans that cover the entire family under a single policy.

Other features include no additional loading at the time of renewal, 100% no claim bonus and great sum insured. For senior citizens, the company is providing insurance cover with features of lifelong cover for self and spouse, 5% discount for every claim free year, cashless coverage across network hospitals and no claim based loadings on renewals. The company is a JV between Apollo Hospitals Group and Munich Health, which is a leading organization when it comes to health insurance.

2. ICICI Lombard 

ICICI Lombard is basically a joint venture between ICICI Bank Limited and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. This organization was established  in 2001 by Hargav Dasgupta. It is one of the largest general insurance companies in the private sector. The company products include policies such as ICICI Lombard Health Insurance, ICICI Lombard Overseas Student Medical Insurance, International Travel insurance, ICICI Lombard Home Insurance and ICICI Lombard Car Insurance.

ICICI Lombard provides a great range of healthcare products like ICICI Lombard Complete Health Insurance, Personal Protect and Health Care Plus. The company aims at providing maximum coverage through their health plans.

3. Max Bupa Health Insurance Company

Max Bupa Health Insurance Company Ltd. (Max Bupa) is basically a joint venture between Max India Limited and the UK based healthcare services, Bupa. It is one of the fastest growing health insurance companies in India. It provides a wide array of health insurance policies, with maximum sum insured and budget deals. It has different types of health plans starting from the coverage of heart ailments to complete hospitalization cover. The plans of Max Bupa carry unique features and benefits that are hard to get in any other company. Apart from the basic cover, the company also provides coverage for maternity expenses, new born baby, vaccination expenses and much more. The best thing about this company is that they settle claims directly without any third party involvement. It also provides unique Health Relationship Program that is especially designed for its dedicated customers who renew their policy without any break.

4. Bajaj Allianz Health Insurance 

It is a joint venture between Bajaj Finserv Limited and Allianz SE. Both enjoy a status of expertise, stability and strength. This insurance company received the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) certificate of Registration on 2nd May, 2001 to perform various business activities (including health insurance business) in India. The company has an authorized and paid up capital of Rs 110 crores. Bajaj Finserv Limited holds 74% and the remaining 26% is held by Allianz SE. Health insurance policies offered by them include Health Guard (Mediclaim), Silver Health (Senior Citizen) and Star Package (Family Floater). There are other policies also like Hospital Cash that gives a fixed sum on every day of hospitalization and Critical Illness that offers a lump sum in case the policyholder contracts one of the critical illnesses listed for e.g. cancer, during the policy period. Bajaj was the first company to come up with a confined TPA with ensuing efficiencies.

5. Religare Health Insurance 

Religare Health Insurance Company Limited is one of the leading providers of health insurance policies in India. The shareholders of this company comprise of three strong entities; Religare Enterprises Limited, a chief diversified financial services group based out of India, Union Bank of India & Corporation Bank. Religare was started by the founders of Fortis hospitals that manage 68 hospitals all over the India.

SRL Diagnostics, Asia’s largest network of diagnostic labs with around 1100 collection centers and Religare Wellness, a countrywide chain of stores providing pharmacy and wellness products are also part of the company. This allows people an in-depth access to various healthcare services. Religare Health Insurance Company was started in the year 2012 and in a short span it has earned the trust of people by providing helpful policies with great features. It allows consumers to get quality treatment at more than 4000 hospitals in the country.