Restrictions & limits imposed in Health Insurance which you should know.

These limits & restrictions are either imposed with the objective to reduce the premium in case you were too pushy to get lesser premium from the insurer or the insurer did it to reduce their loss. Majority of time the insured is in the dark about them at inception and would only experience them during a medical emergency. Few of them which you should look out for are -

1. Day wise cash limits – the policy may talk about lot of cash benefits but restrict daily cash outflow to say Rs.15000/-. Then it is only Rs.15,000/-.
2. Disease & Procedure wise sub-limits – you insured to protect yourself from diseases and procedures which you know can be very expensive; on other hand the insurer protects themselves by imposing these sub-limits which reduces their losses in single procedure or disease you claim. Lack of knowledge of these sub-limits can become counterproductive of taking the insurance at the first place. 
3. Room rent restrictions – Room rent is the key variable on which your entire hospitalization bill may depends on. Higher the room rent higher would be the cost of procedures. Usually room rent is restricted to 1% of the sum assured for normal and 2% for ICU. Some insurer would impose no restriction at all. This would mean that if you’re staying in a higher room rent than your entitlement under insurance you have to pay for the extra room rent but also bear the increase in the cost due to the higher room rent. 
4. Co-pay – Your policy may talk about all coverage which may sound attractive but later insurer may impose co-pay where in you have to share certain have predetermined portion of the total bill. Co-pay is a good marketing tool in the hands of the insurer where he can talk about all goodies at first and later at the fag end of the literature can impose heavy co-pay. This makes the product more appealing to you at the point of sale. Insurance for the senior citizen may attract co-pay which you may only experience at the cash counter of the hospitals.
5. Geographic restrictions – some insurers may restrict your policy geographically that is to say coverage is restricted to region or territory to reduce premium. This can cause serious issues if you want to take your loved one to another hospital which is out of your region on reference. Majority of the clients may not even aware about these restrictions. 
6. Renewable age limit – few insurers have started giving renewal for while life. It makes sense to be with one who does as one would need to use the insurance more at the fag end of one’s life.