If you don’t know which health insurance plan to buy, go through the ET Wealth-PlanCover.com rankings. In this issue, we list the top contenders for single men in the age group of 18-40 years.

Given the rising cost of health care and medi cal treatment, it is be coming increasingly important to insure oneself. However, the market is flooded with products, with as many as 24 companies in general insurance and many life insurers offering various types and sizes of covers. The features, terms and conditions, limits and sub-limits are often hidden away in the fine print and their interpretation is confusing. This makes it difficult to choose a product that suits a specific lifestage requirement and offers the best value for money.Since decisions are made mostly on the basis of lowest price, claims rate or recommendations of agents, it can result in claim rejections or partial settlements.

To ease this dilemma, we offer a ranking of various health insurance products available in the market. The ranking is done by PlanCover.com, HII Insurance Broking Services Private Limited, an IRDAI-licenced insurance broker. It will try to explain the impact of various terms and conditions and zero in on the policy that is most appropriate for you.Instead of offering a ranking on the basis of policy segments (individualfamily) or assigning points to features independently, PlanCover.com links it to customer categories. The various features in a policy are assigned weightages according to their relevance to the given customer segment and the final rankings arrived at after this.

ET Wealth shall provide these rankings every alternate week for different customer segments. The listing shall be accompanied by star rating, premium rates, and five features that are most relevant to the given category. The details can be seen on the link provided. We hope this will reduce the trauma of choosing an insurance policy and shall meet your specific requirements.

METHODOLOGY

The individuals and families have been classified by modifying the `sagacity’ segmentation method to suit a broad range of readers. The most relevant features in health policies have been divided into five categories based on what PlanCover.com considers their importance for a given customer segment. These are--Critical, Motivation, Standard, Luxury and Does Not Matter.The rankings also take into account product pricing, not just the current one, but that charged by the insurer as the policyholder ages. The allocation and its individual weightage is based on the data of claims available in public records published by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), PlanCover.com’s analysis of the claims it has handled, and its experience in managing claims.