Care Supreme is the stronger cover here.

Admissions And Charges Judged Unnecessary

The insurer can refuse an admission it judges was not medically needed - and, where the policy's own wording says so, any charge it judges above the going rate. It is the widest discretion in a policy and it applies to every claim, so keep the treating doctor's reasons on the file.

Advanced Treatments Not On The List

The policy pays advanced-technology methods only for the procedures it lists by name. Anything outside that list is not paid at all, however established the technology is at the hospital.

Birth Defects You Can See

Birth defects visible on the outside of the body are not paid for. The clause reaches only external conditions - internal birth defects are not excluded by it. Some policies apply a waiting period to an internal birth defect instead, so it is paid only after that period ends. The conditions quoted for each policy say whether that applies.

Consumables And Non-Medical Items

Consumables and convenience items on the regulator's non-medical lists - gloves, admission kits, toiletries and similar - are struck off the hospital bill, and that part stays with you unless the policy writes them back into cover. On a long stay these small lines add up to real money.

Dental Treatment

Ordinary dental work - check-ups, fillings, root canals, dentures - is usually not paid for. Serious dental treatment is paid only where the policy writes an exception of its own, so the exact trigger - an accident, a hospital admission, a named illness - sits in each policy's clause.

Expensive Drug Infusions

Expensive drug infusions, biologics most of all, are handled separately from ordinary hospital treatment. Some policies pay for them only when you are admitted, and refuse the same drug given in an outpatient infusion chair. Others refuse the admission that was arranged so that the infusion could be given, and a clause may name other costly infusions alongside, such as immunoglobulin or bone-strengthening drugs. Either way a large cost, often a repeated one, stays with you. The clause quoted for each policy tells you which way its own wording runs.

External Medical Devices

A device you can put on and take off yourself, without a surgery to fit it, counts as equipment rather than as treatment, and is not paid for. Each policy draws the line in its own words: some list the items, such as wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, glucometers, oxygen concentrators and machines for sleep apnoea, and others set a test, such as whether the device can be removed without surgery. Where a policy writes a way in, either inside the clause or through an add-on that names the items it will pay for, its own wording says so.

Glasses And Hearing Aids

Glasses, contact lenses and hearing aids are not paid for: they count as external aids rather than as treatment. Each policy groups them with the other corrective aids its own clause names, and some clauses reach further, as far as devices such as cochlear implants. Where a policy writes a way in, a device needed because of an illness or injury, one fitted during an operation, or an implant made necessary by an accident, its own clause says so.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Hormone replacement therapy is excluded by name - the treatment used to replace hormones the body no longer makes, most often around menopause or after surgery that removes the ovaries or testes. You pay for it yourself.

Illness Linked To Smoking Or Drinking

This can reach an illness a doctor puts down to a habit, not only harm done in the moment of use, which makes it wider than the standard addiction exclusion. Which substances it names varies: some clauses list tobacco and smoking beside alcohol and drugs, others reach only intoxicants. The clause quoted for each policy tells you which.

Intellectual Disability

Treatment for intellectual disability is excluded, and it is also written out of the plan's definition of Mental Illness - so the mental-health cover does not reach it either.

Life Support After Brain Death

Once a vegetative state or brain death is confirmed and treatment will not bring recovery, life support stops being paid. Families meet this clause at the worst possible moment, so it is worth knowing before you need it.

Therapies Outside AYUSH

Systems of medicine a policy does not recognise are not paid for. Where the policy grants an AYUSH benefit, that benefit covers Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy, and it overrides this clause as far as it reaches. Therapies outside those six - acupressure, acupuncture, magnetic therapy, reflexology, chiropractic - stay excluded, and each policy names its own.

Armed Forces Duty

Circumcision

Convalescent And Detox Homes

Hair Loss Treatment

Hospital Service Charges

Paperwork Charges

Self-Inflicted Injury

Self-Medication

Treatment Abroad

TV And Toiletries

Unprescribed Stimulants

War And Nuclear Events

Cosmetic & elective

Aesthetic procedures, weight-loss surgery or hair transplants - unless medically required after an accident.

Self-inflicted injury

Treatment arising from intentional self-harm or reckless exposure to extreme risk.

Extreme adventure sports

Unlicensed skydiving, bungee jumping, deep-sea diving or professional motorsport.

War & nuclear risk

Injury from active participation in war, military operations, nuclear radiation or terrorism.

Maternity waiting limits

Standard waits (often 12–24 months) before pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal care are payable.

Addiction & rehab

Therapy for drug abuse, alcoholism, smoking cessation and long-term psychiatric care beyond stabilisation.