Narayana Health Insurance, a newly launched insurance venture of the reputed Narayana Hrudayalaya group has made a surprising announcement. They have launched a Rs 1 Crore Family Floater Health Insurance (for 4 family members) plan named ADITI for a shockingly low premium of Rs 10,000 per year!
It looks great at the face of it – Rs 1 crore health insurance cover for 4 family members for a total premium of Rs 10,000 yearly.
But is it really good and worth purchasing?
Credit where it is due, at least the insurer is trying something unique and at least attempting to make health insurance affordable. For a few, if not everyone. What is worth noting is that this is the first health insurance product of the Narayana Health Insurance group and is aimed at providing comprehensive coverage at an affordable cost.
Let’s do a detailed review of Aditi Health Insurance (having IRDA’s UIN: NHIHLIP25035V012425) and see its features and benefits:
Features of Rs 1 crore ADITI Health Insurance
- The plan provides coverage of up to Rs 1 crore for surgeries (including heart, kidney, lung transplants, etc.) and up to Rs 5 lakh for medical treatments within the Narayana Health network.
- What this means is that while Rs 1 Crore cover is available for surgery and related costs, the cover reduces drastically to just Rs 5 lakh sum insured only for non-surgical cases.
- The annual premium for the basic entry-level plan has been set at Rs 10,000 per annum.
- There is Zero Copay generally. But a 10% copay shall be applicable if the Insured Person is seeking coverage at a Non-Network Provider.
- Also, a Daily Deductible of Rs 2000 shall be applicable. There is a slight difference in the application based on the plan selected. In Plan 1, a Daily Deductible of Rs 2000 on all admissible claims. In Plan 2, a Daily Deductible of Rs 2000 shall be applied to all admissible claims for Non-Surgery or Non-Surgical Procedures.
- As per the detailed policy wordings (link), the coverage is available at Network Provider (i.e. in hospitals of the Narayana Group in India) in the General Ward only (not even sharing or single private AC room).
- So if one decides to get admitted in the higher category room other than General Ward, the insurer will pay only a pro-rated portion of the total Associated Medical Expenses (including surcharges or taxes thereon) in the proportion of the difference between the Room Rent for General Ward and the availed category of room.
- And what if the insured is taking treatment outside network hospitals? In that case, the company has clearly mentioned that the Coverage outside Narayana Health Network is severely limited. And will be available only in case of emergencies, or if i) the treatment is not available at the Network Provider at the time of admission, ii) the Insured Person travelling to a location where the Network Provider is not accessible, etc.
- So this means that at least for now, the health insurance Aditi plan will be restricted for treatment in cashless mode only at a very few selected hospitals within the group and hence doesn’t provide national coverage. This is unlike traditional health insurance plans that tend to cover thousands of hospitals.
- And which cities have hospitals in the network? That is, what is the Narayana Health Insurance hospital list? As of now, they have 21 network hospitals in total across the cities of MYSORE, BANGALORE, KOLAR, DHARWAD, SHIMOGA, DAVANGERE, AHMEDABAD, MUMBAI, JAIPUR, GURGAON, KOLKATA, JAMSHEDPUR, RAIPUR, GUWAHATI, JAMMU, DELHI, HOWRAH.
- Currently, the plan is available for sale in a few districts only, namely Mysore, Chamraj Nagar, Coorg, Mandya and Hassan. The company is clear that with this launch, they plan to first collect feedback and then adapt the plan in future to ensure optimal service and scalability.
- So for all practical purposes, it is not a Pan-India health insurance cover! At least as of now at the time of launch.
Here is the schedule of benefits (as per the policy document)
If you want to know more about the Narayana Health Insurance Aditi plan, then you can go to the Narayana Health Insurance website to buy Aditi Insurance.
Premium Illustration of Narayana Aditi Health Insurance Plan
The company has provided 2 sample premium illustrations:
So all said and done, comes the final question.
Should you Buy Narayana Health Insurance Rs 1 Crore ADITI Plan?
While I personally feel that Indian health insurance needs a major overhaul and that this policy is an excellent initiative and (I guess) a genuine step towards trying out something unique, I think it is still early days to purchase this policy.
The plan in its current version, is very narrow and needs a lot of feature upgrades before it can become a suitable option to provide universal coverage! The reasons are as follows:
- When one takes health insurance, one wants it to be as comprehensive as possible. And this policy (even though it catches the eye with Rs 1 crore in Rs 10,000 annual premium claim), isn’t exactly comprehensive.
- It is available in very few cities and even fewer hospitals (just 21 across India). To get treated outside the network hospital from a claim settlement aspect seems messy as of now. This can be an operational headache.
- The cover of Rs 1 crore is only for surgeries and not for non-surgical treatments which are capped at Rs 5 lakh.
- Only the general ward is applicable! This won’t work (or isn’t preferable) under normal circumstances for most people reading this article.
If you are interested, you can download the Aditi Policy Brochure here or from the insurer’s website using this link. Also, do go through the policy wordings or the policy prospectus if you want to dig deeper.
So that was the review of Narayana Health Insurance’s first health product ADITI. I hope you found this Review of Aditi Health Insurance (2024) and whether to buy it now or not, useful.