You have to understand how insurance is fundamentally designed to serve you before you buy. You will also know why and how a fair comparison of premium vs coverage/benefits is important before you decide to buy.
The structure of insurance as a contract lies on three strong pillars,
- A Promise – The Insurer promises to cover your losses due to unforeseen events as specified in the Insurance policy. For example, covering cost of hospitalisation due to specified illnesses in a health insurance policy or covering the cost of accidental repair in your car insurance policy.
- Unforeseen Events – The promise holds good only for those events or group of events, which are specified/named in the insurance policy. It is normally called as a set of benefits or coverage clearly spelt out in the insurance policy.
- Terms and Conditions – And the Promise will be honored subject to a list of terms and conditions mentioned in the insurance policy. The standard terms, conditions and exclusions (those which are not covered) will be detailed in the ‘Policy Wording’.