What is BMI? How to Calculate? How does it Impacts Health Insurance Premiums?
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Owing to the unhealthy lifestyle, the chances of getting affected by a number of health problems become quite high. An unhealthy habit of eating frequently, sitting for continuous hours without indulging in any physical activity, and other such things not just leads to weight gain but also affects your Body Mass Index or what is called BMI. An inadequate Body Mass Index also has a role to play in your insurance plans. The premium of health insurance plans in most cases increases if the insured has an inadequate BMI. So, let’s walk you through what exactly is BMI, how to calculate it, and how it impacts your health insurance premiums.
What is BMI & How to Calculate It?
Body Mass Index or what is popularly called BMI, is a basic statistic that is calculated as per the height and weight of the individual. Here is how you can easily calculate the Body Mass Index:
Body Mass Index (BMI) = Weight of the individual’s body / square value of the individual’s height. Here is an example to determine the same: if the weight is 65 kg and height is 1.67 metres, then the BMI calculated based on this comes out to be 23.3, which also means that the individual has a healthy weight. Similarly, based on your height and weight, you can easily calculate your Body Mass Index.
Based on the BMI, an individual is categorised as overweight, underweight, and other such categories. Here is a table that details how BMI helps in categorizing different individuals:
|
BMI |
Weight category |
|
If BMI is less than 18.5 |
Underweight |
|
If BMI is between 18.5-24.9 |
Healthy weight |
|
If BMI is between 25-29.9 |
Overweight |
|
If BMI is more than 30 |
Obese |
Based on the BMI, it is easy to identify the fitness level of an individual. For instance, if the BMI is more than 30, then it not just indicates that the individual is facing issues of obesity but also shows that he/she is at a greater risk of getting affected by different cardiovascular diseases, as well as other health problems. On the other hand, if the BMI is lower than 18.5, it becomes important to realise that such individuals need to seek a dietician to improve their nutritional intake and be categorised as healthy-weight individuals. However, please note that BMI does not take into account the gender of an individual and thus sometimes becomes very limiting.
Effect of BMI on Health Insurance Premiums
A health insurance plan is an extremely important insurance product that provides you with much-needed medical assistance in case of a health emergency. Offering financial assistance and ensuring quality treatment in case of a health emergency, health insurance is surely a must-have for all.
Furthermore, the Body Mass Index also helps in categorising individuals based on their weight, so, it also indicates the fitness level of an individual. For example, individuals with a BMI greater than 30 are at a higher risk of falling ill and going to the hospital to seek medical treatment. This is the reason why health insurance premiums for individuals with higher BMI are higher, similarly, for those with a moderate BMI, the health insurance premium will be lower. Thus, it can be said that the health insurance premium directly depends on the Body Mass Index (BMI) of an individual. So, it is better to speak to your health insurer to know all about the correlation with Body Mass Index.
Moreover, apart from the Body Mass Index, there are certain other factors that typically affect the health insurance premium amount such as age, family history, pre-existing diseases, and other factors.
Take Away
In a nutshell, it can be said that the Body Mass Index plays an important role in determining health insurance premiums. So, keep all of these factors in mind while buying a health insurance plan.
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