What Happens If You Miss Your Health Insurance Renewal?

Health insurance is one of the most important investments that you make in today’s uncertain world. Falling ill not only drains your physical strength but also disturbs your peace of mind. Thus, it is important that you are adequately insured with a health insurance plan all year round. An appropriate health insurance plan can safeguard you against any financial setback that you might face while availing medical treatments. Now, if you forget to renew health insurance (which is generally an annual policy), then you will not be covered for any medical emergencies, unless you renew your policy or buy a new one. Disadvantages of not renewing your health insurance policy Health insurance is a very important investment that you should make so that you do not have to spend much on your own for getting a treatment for health related issues. Following are some of the disadvantages of not renewing your health insurance policy:

• You will not be covered by your insurer for any medical emergency & hospitalization that you might face after the expiry and before the renewal of your policy.
• You will have to bear all the expenses related to health care from out of your pocket if your health insurance policy has expired and you have not renewed it.
• You might lose a chance to get quality health care in top-notch network hospitals across India.
• At Bajaj Allianz, we offer a benefit of cumulative bonus on the premium amount of your health insurance policy for every claim free year. However, if you do not renew your health insurance policy before its expiration, you will lose the opportunity to earn this bonus.
• If you do not renew your policy in the grace period, which is given by the insurance companies after the expiration of your policy, then you will have to start the process of buying the health insurance policy from scratch. It means that your insurer might ask you to undergo some tests and based on the result of those tests you will be issued the policy, which might be a very lengthy process. Your premium might also change.
• Also if you try to renew your policy after waiting too long after its expiration, then all the waiting periods from your previous policy will become void and they will be freshly applied with your new health insurance policy.
• As many of you know that the premium you pay towards your health insurance policy helps you save on your tax under section 80 D of the Income Tax Act. But the non-renewal of your health insurance policy will result in loss of this savings.

All the health insurance companies provide a grace period (from 7 to 30 days) after your policy has gone past its expiration date. Although your health insurance policy does not provide coverage to you in the grace period, it still gives you a window to renew your policy so that you do not lose on other benefits such as cumulative bonus, tax savings and loss of waiting period. Health insurance companies send you many reminders to renew your policy before its expiration date. We urge that you respond in time to these reminders and get your policy renewed at the earliest. You can also opt for various add-ons to enhance the coverage of your health insurance plan during the policy renewal. It is vital to renew health insurance plans on time and choose to insure yourself and your loved ones from any stressful medical emergency situation.