Health insurance with no premium hikes: Should you buy such plans?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. You bought health insurance in your twenties and have been paying premiums for 5-10 years. Despite being healthy and never having filed a claim, your policy premium has still increased which can feel unfair.
What if your premiums remain the same if you don't make a claim? A few insurance companies are offering exactly this with premium lock-in options. This will freeze your premium amount until you make a claim or reach a certain age. Some products that provide this option include Niva Bupa Reassure 2.0, Niva Bupa Aspire, and Super Star Health Insurance.
The latest addition to this category is Galaxy Promise, which is the first product from Galaxy Health Insurance, a new entrant in the health insurance market. The company was founded by V. Jagannathan, who previously launched Star Health.
"Premium lock-in feature, which is quite useful for young policyholders. Once the lock-in period is over, the premium can rise by 15-20% every five years," said Nikhil Jha, founder, Hercules Insurance Advisors. Both products come with 'lock the clock' feature which means the premium rate is fixed at the age you purchase the policy and remains unchanged until a claim is processed.
Future premiums get determined based on age bands. Aspire's feature is slightly different from that of Reassure 2.0. If a claim falls under Aspire's M-iracle benefit, it will not affect 'lock the clock' status, unlike Reassure 2.0 where any type of claim breaks the benefit.
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