Availing a no claim bonus in health insurance policies

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In the event of not making a claim during a policy year under the health insurance policy, the policy holder is awarded with an incentive known as No Claim Bonus or NCB by the insurer. The NCB is offered to customers every year provided they do not file any claim during the policy year. It is also a way to reward policy holders for their loyalty.

Also, offering an NCB is much cheaper than paying out for a claim that may run into lakhs. The bonus offered by insurer is cumulative in nature and keeps increasing with every claim-free year.

Availing a No Claim Bonus (NCB) in health insurance

In the case of a health insurance, the offered bonus can be availed in the form of a discount on the subsequent policy premium, enhancement of sum insured without any change in the policy premium or other benefits like Gym, Spa and Yoga subscriptions, or discount on wellness-related products. NCB is applicable to both individual as well as family floater health insurance plans. Under a family floater if no one from the lives insured in the plan make any claim, the insurer rewards an NCB.

While some insurers may allow enhancement of sum insured, others may offer a discount on premium or discount on wellness products and services. Earlier, most of the health insurance policies allowed the enhancement of sum insured through NCB up to a limit of 50%(maximum). However, there are health policies available in the market, where the sum of money insured is enhanced up to 200%.

Customers who are not happy with their current insurer and wish to port their policy to a better insurer, can even get the NCB transferred to the new insurer. However, to avail NCB benefits, one must make sure to renew the health policy within the renewal date. Every insurer gives a maximum of 30 days as grace period after the initial renewal date to the customers to renew their policy. If the customer fails to renew the health policy even during the grace period, all the NCB benefits are lost and cannot be revived.