Marriage is a major milestone in our lives. It brings with it a lot of changes and added responsibilities. These include financial responsibilities too. Therefore, you need to plan your finances to accommodate your partner.
While you are newly married, it is important to remember that life is unpredictable, and medical emergencies can crop up at any time. Unfortunately, medical treatment costs have been rising exponentially over the last decade.
Hence, a health insurance policy has become more of a necessity in today’s times. With a spouse in your life, you might need to modify your health insurance plan to include them. But, how do you make the changes to your existing health insurance plan? Here are some tips.
If you have an existing health insurance policy, merely adding your spouse’s name to the policy is not enough. There are many other factors that you must consider, as explained below.
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Changes You Must Make to Your Existing Health Insurance
Here are a few changes that you need to consider for your existing health insurance plan:
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Assess the Health Insurance Requirements
While you might have assessed your requirements while purchasing the policy for yourself, the inclusion of a spouse in your life changes things. So, first, talk to your partner and share your medical history and concerns. This will help you assess if the existing policy offers adequate coverage or if you need riders or a completely different policy.
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Look At Your Existing Health Insurance Plan
Once you are clear about the insurance requirements for you and your spouse, evaluate your existing health insurance policy. Two things that you must focus on are the scope and extent of the policy. In other words, look at the inclusions and exclusions of the policy and the sum insured. Check if the scope and extent match your requirements. If your spouse has an existing policy, then make sure that you assess that too.
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Look At The Options Available To You
There are many types of health insurance policies available in the market. To ensure that you have the best health insurance for you and your spouse, research the market and look at the different options available to you. Look for medical insurance plans that are designed to support young couples with a potential for covering children in the future too. Compare features, benefits, and premiums to get an optimal plan for yourself.
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Consider A Family Insurance Plan
If you and your spouse plan to extend your family and have kids, you might want to look at health insurance plans for the family. This policy allows you to add a spouse, children, and dependent parents. Hence, you can get coverage for your entire family in a single plan. In addition, these policies are easy to manage since you don’t have to think about the coverage, scope, and premium payments for multiple policies.
Tips to Choose the Right Health Insurance Policy
Here are some handy tips that can help you choose the perfect health insurance policy for your family:
- The medical insurance policy must offer protection against a wide range of medical problems. Also, look for policies that offer hospitalisation benefits along with ancillary expenses. Further, make sure that the policy meets the requirements of all members of the family.
- Health insurance policies come with annual premiums. This is a recurring cost. Hence, ensure that the premium is affordable. Policies with high premiums offer better coverage. However, you must consider affordability before buying a health insurance policy.
- Family plans are better for people living with families. These plans offer more benefits at a reasonable price. You can also look at some insurers that offer health insurance for married couples.
- If you buy a health insurance policy at a young age, then make sure that the insurer offers lifetime renewability. Some insurers limit the age until you can renew the policy. Remember, you are likely to need the policy when you get older. Therefore, look for lifetime renewability.
- Health insurers have a list of hospitals that are called network hospitals. The insurer has a tie-up with these hospitals to avail of cashless treatment. Make sure that the hospitals you prefer are on the list.
- Finally, look at the claim settlement ratio of the insurer. Also, make sure that you read reviews to ascertain the quality of service provided to policyholders. Even if the policy offers the best benefits, if the claim settlement ratio is low, you might face problems while getting your claim.
Summing Up
Marriage introduces us to a whole new world of responsibility. While it has its rewards, we need to ensure that we are prepared to handle these added responsibilities. Health is an important aspect of our lives. Finances are important too.
With the right health insurance policy, you can ensure that you don’t compromise on the medical treatment of your loved ones if a medical emergency strikes. Talk to your spouse, create a strategy to ease any potential medical emergencies, and understand the average health insurance cost for a married couple. The tips mentioned above can help you get started so that you can purchase the right health insurance for married couples. Good Luck!