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Methodology

Every number,
sourced.

We don't make up numbers. Every benchmark, every verdict, every recommendation has a source — and you can dispute any of them.

1. Cover benchmarks (how much you need)

  • Health: at least 50% of annual income (golden rule); 3-5× income for adults 40+; ₹5-10 lakh individual minimum; metro tier-1 ₹3-5 lakh "no longer enough" (2025-26).
  • Life: 15-20× annual income (Swiss Re 2021 protection-gap study; industry consensus).

2. Premium benchmarks (what peers like you pay)

  • p50/p75/p90 are sourced from 18 active retail health plans + 12 term plans (rate cards, 2025-26 effective).
  • Cohorts: 6 age bands × 5 income bands × 3 city tiers = 90 cells. At R1 launch we've hand-verified the top 30.
  • As Pazcare cohort data grows past 500 per cell, we switch the cell's source to pazcare_cohort.

3. Claim settlement ratio (CSR)

  • Source: IRDAI 2024-25 sector report. Health-claim settlement by volume: 87.5% sector average; Star Health 99.06%; HDFC Ergo 97.45%; public-sector 97.30% vs private 77.50%.
  • Healthy CSR threshold: >90%. Plans below 85% flagged as risk in our recommendations.

4. T&C dimensions (the silent killers)

  • Pre-existing-disease (PED) waiting months — the single highest-impact comparison field.
  • Room rent capping + proportionate deduction (the "silent killer").
  • Mandatory co-pay (any % > 0 is flagged).
  • Restoration, cumulative bonus, modern treatment cover, sub-limits.
  • Maternity waiting + cap.

All 50+ comparable dimensions are stored per plan in market_products. We compare on dealbreaker fields first, then on premium.

5. Confidence labels — what they mean

  • hand_verified — a Pazcare licensed underwriter has read the source document and confirmed the value.
  • cis_extracted — pulled from IRDAI Customer Information Sheet (the regulator's mandatory disclosure).
  • industry_estimate — modelled from public rate cards or third-party data; lower confidence.
  • pazcare_cohort — derived from Pazcare customer data, once a cell has enough volume.

6. Disputes (how it gets better)

Every fact has a "That's not right" link. Tapping it files a dispute. A background research job re-derives the fact from primary sources and updates it within 48 hours. The dispute log is public; we publish a quarterly report of how often we were wrong and by how much.

7. What we explicitly don't do

  • We don't weight insurer choice by what they pay us (we earn the same on every plan — see /how-we-earn).
  • We don't compare plans only on premium. The lowest-price option rarely matches your cohort.
  • We don't use insurer-claimed CSR. Only IRDAI's audited dataset.
  • We don't hide unlisted plans. If the right plan for you is one we can't sell, we say so.