Which is the best Health Insurance company and policy

Instead of looking or choosing an insurance company, look for a health policy that you need and that may work best for you. Most health insurance companies have some generic plans (individual or family plans). However, some plans are designed keeping in mind specific needs. These include policies designed to cater for the needs of women, children and the elderly. For example, a policy covering pre-existing conditions or a specific health condition may be good for the elderly and those at risk of certain diseases. Similarly, health policies that cover pregnancy and related conditions may work well for women.

Make sure to compare different health plans from various insurance companies before buying a health policy for yourself or your family.

(Read more: Which is the cheapest health insurance)

One advantage of buying health insurance is that you don’t have to worry about money at the time of illness. Therefore, whenever you buy a health insurance plan from a company, pay special attention to its network hospitals which provide cashless facilities and check how many of these hospitals are nearby to your home. The more hospitals that are connected to the company's cashless network, the more facilities you will have in times of need. 

It might interest you to know that myUpchar Insurance Plus policy provides cashless facilities in more than 7000 network hospitals.

(Read more: Best cashless mediclaim policy in India)

Claim settlement ratio is of utmost importance when it comes to buying the best health insurance plan. It refers to the percentage of cases in which a company pays the claim. The claim settlement ratio of many companies ranges from 96-97 percent, while for some companies it remains up to 56 percent. The higher the claim settlement ratio (closer to 100 percent) of a company, the more claims it would have settled in the financial year. 

Care Health Insurance is at number two in the list of insurance companies when it comes to claim settlement. Care Health Insurance is the belief behind myUpchar Bima Plus policy. 

(Source: IBAI’s General Insurance Claim Insights Handbook - 5th Edition)

It is very important for any health insurance company or plan to have a simple claim settlement process. This is because you need it only in times of trouble. In case of an emergency, any person wants to spend more and more time with his/her sick family members instead of waiting for claim settlement. Therefore, choose a health insurance company that has minimum formalities for claim settlement. myUpchar Bima Plus policy has minimal documentation for claim settlement, making the process faster and easier.

(Read more: What does health insurance cover)

You would not want to choose an insurance company that is not able to provide timely and efficient customer services. Whenever you buy health insurance for yourself or your loved ones, make sure they have 24-hour customer support available so you can get help quickly in times of trouble.

Let us understand this with an example - suppose xyz company has a claim settlement ratio of 99 percent, but it has sold only 100 policies in a whole year. On the other hand, the claim settlement ratio of zyx company is 95 percent and it has sold 1000 policies in the same year. Then, experts suggest that you should buy health insurance from zyx company. This is because the latter has more business volume and more market share. In other words, more people trust this company.