Your health insurance policy has a wonderful feature known as the no claim bonus or NCB. The NCB is a reward that is given out for each policy year in which you do not make a claim. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? In this article, we will take you through an overview of this benefit in your health insurance as well as tell you some important things you need to know about the NCB.
How does NCB in health insurance work?
When it comes to health insurance, judicious use is always rewarded. If you keep in good health and do not make any claims during a given policy year, you receive a benefit known as NCB. This benefit is usually handed out as a percentage of increase in your cover limit. This increase happens at no extra cost to your health insurance premium. The percentage of increase can start at around 5% and go as high as a whopping 50%!
Let’s look at an example of how NCB works
Pooja has just taken a health insurance policy with a cover limit of Rs 3 lakhs. In the first year of her coverage, she maintains her health and thus, does not make any claims with the insurer. As a reward for this, when she renews her plan in the second year, she gets a 5% increase on her basic sum insured. This means her new sum insured on her health insurance policy will be now Rs 3,15,000. She gets the extra Rs 15000 added at no extra charge. If she again does not make a claim in her second policy year, her sum insured will go up to Rs 3,30,000 and keep increasing each year until she makes a claim.
Your NCB is portable
You may decide to switch between health insurance providers if you find better coverage elsewhere at better costs. In this case, you would be glad to know that the NCB on your health insurance policy is portable. You will not lose your accumulated benefits simply because you have decided to switch between providers.
However, do bear in mind that you need to keep renewing your health insurance plan on time each year for your NCB to stay active and accumulate. If you skip the expiry, date, you get a grace period within which you can renew coverage. However, if you miss out on making the renewal during this grace period as well, you will lose the NCB.
We hope that this article has improved your knowledge of the NCB benefit in health insurance. As the costs of healthcare keep on increasing each year, the benefit of NCB can actually help in saving your money as you get more coverage at no extra cost to your premium. Do make sure to ask your insurance provider about their NCB policy today. Remember that you can easily renew health insurance online and stay continuously protected against the heavy expenses of illnesses. Take care.