Regardless of the health insurance company that you choose, you will notice that all the companies have two types of policies one is individual policy and another family floater. Both have their place and advantages and your specific requirements will decide what is best for you.
If you choose to go with individual policy, you need to get an individual policy for each member in the family. You will need to pay separate premium for each policy that you sign up for each member of the family. The sum assured will be and can be used only for the specific member in whose name the policy is taken. Each policy will have its own maximum sum assured amount.
If you choose family floater then you can include your parents also to your policy. You will be sharing the sum assured with the other members of the family. If you have aging parents then their medical expenses will be much higher when compared to the other younger members of the family. So they will keep using the sum assured. The advantage here is that if you are a healthy person with aging parents then even your share, your spouse and children’s share of the sum assured could be used towards the medical expenses of the parents. You need not have to worry that your insurance premium is not being utilized. However, if you too happen to succumb to some kind of ailment during a particular year then it will have a negative impact on your share.
With family floaters the challenge is that the senior members are allowed to renew the policy only up to a certain age limit. If you happen to renew the policy and breach this term then it will make the entire policy null and void. You will not be able to benefit from your own policy.
Another disadvantage with family floater is that the chances of losing one’s no claim bonus is high because one or the other member of the family is likely to use the insurance in a given year and the NCB will be lost for the entire floater. With individual policies such issues will not be there. However, what you spend and claim towards the medical expenses will be much higher than the savings that you are likely to enjoy through no claim bonus. So this may not be a valid factor to consider while deciding whether one should include parents in the family floater or get a separate policy for the parents.
There are pros and cons in both approaches. You should therefore carefully review your personal needs and health conditions to make meaningful choices while buying the health insurance for your parents. Know more about family floater health insurance plans
Contact:
Medimanage Insurance Broking Pvt. Ltd.
612/613, Neelkant Corporate Park,
Kirol Road,Vidyavihar west,
Mumbai-400086.
Phone : 022-67282929
Email ID : expert@medimanage.com
