Having health insurance these days is an absolute must; the rising costs of medical treatment can see your entire savings wiped out by a single hospitalisation. The need for coverage is even greater if you have dependent family members. Now, you might wonder whether you should buy individual health insurance plans for your loved ones, or cover them all under a family floater plan. If that is a doubt you currently have in mind, this article will shed some light to help you choose.

Individual Health Insurance vs. Family Floater Health Insurance: What’s the Difference?

As the name suggests, an individual health insurance plan covers the person named in the plan as the policyholder. They alone enjoy coverage up to the limits specified in the policy. A family floater plan covers two or more family members under a single sum insured that is paid for by a single premium. Any of the insured family members can make a claim under the same sum insured up to the limits specified in the policy.

Individual Health Insurance vs. Family Floater Health Insurance: Which to buy?

A family floater health insurance plan is the ideal pick for a newly married couple or a nuclear family. You will enjoy coverage for yourself, your spouse, and dependent children under a single plan at a single premium. This proves to be more cost-effective than buying individual health insurance plans for each of your family members. Moreover, when buying individual plans for family members, we generally neglect buying coverage for children – this can prove to be a huge mistake. Children too often fall sick and sometimes, require to be hospitalised. A family floater health insurance plan provides an easy solution for keeping your children protected with health insurance, should the need arise.

Additionally, if your employer covers you with a basic corporate group health insurance plan, you can also consider opting in for a family floater plan as a back-up coverage for yourself and a primary insurance plan for your spouse and children. Remember that family floater plans also do let you include your parents, parents-in-law, and dependent siblings too. So, you can buy coverage for your entire household under a single plan – just make sure that you choose a larger sum insured so that each member has adequate access to coverage in case of multiple claims in the same year.

Now, let’s look at a couple of scenarios in which it would make more sense for you to buy individual health insurance plans for your family. If your senior parents have a history of certain illnesses, you might want to buy individual health insurance policies for them as opposed to covering them in a family floater plan. This is because frequent hospitalisations claimed from the family floater plan will not leave room for any other members of the policy to make claims if they have to. Also, the premium of the family floater plan would be calculated based on the age of the oldest member. Thus, it might actually be more practical for you to buy individual health insurance policies for your parents.

Also, buying an individual health insurance policy might make sense for a person who has a family history of certain medical conditions. For instance, if heart disease runs in your family, you would want to have an individual health insurance plan so that you can enjoy greater coverage in case you need to make a claim. You can then always opt to cover your spouse and children under individual plans of their own or under a family floater plan that also includes you for extended protection.

The verdict

There is no right or wrong choice when it comes to choosing between individual health insurance and family floater health insurance plans. As we can see, the decision really depends on the policyholder’s unique needs of insurance for themselves and their loved ones. Just make sure to always keep your health insurance policy renewed each year as you never know when you need to use it.

We hope that this article will help you make the right decision on the coverage you need.

Take care.