While searching for a health insurance policy I came across sites like Policybazaar, besides websites of insurance companies. Whom should I buy insurance from as the premium rates were different at each one of them?
Devesh Mishra, Bhopal
Your predicament is understandable. However, you could buy insurance directly through online aggregators like Policybazaar or the health insurers’ site. Typically, online aggregators let you compare features and price of several products offered by different insurers on their website. In this way, you can check features and evaluate policies before zeroing on the one that meets your requirements and go in for it. If you were to directly check policies from the insurer’s websites, it would be a tedious and time consuming process.
The choice of buying a policy is ultimately left to you, because, even if you decide to buy a policy through an online aggregator, the final policy is issued by the insurance company. The terms and conditions mentioned in the policy are adhered to by the insurer, even if you buy the policy through an aggregator. What this means is that when it comes to the policy being serviced; you will need to directly deal with the insurer and not the aggregator.
Sometimes there are advantages in going through an agent, as their relationship with the insurer, gives them a better access to the insurer, which may be useful at the time of claim. But, when buying a policy, chances are agents may push for a plan that may provide them with a higher commission. It is for this reason that despite the convenience and ease of buying policies online; many people prefer to research online and buy the policy offline to get the best of both the worlds.
