Health insurance has become an essential part of financial planning process. As essential it is to invest wisely for higher returns, it is equally important to ensure a backup plan is set in place to tackle uncertain events like a medical exigency. A health insurance policy is the perfect safety net that ensures protection from such unexpected costs of medical treatments.

When you buy health insurance policies, there are various type of plans to choose from. Each of them is best suited and designed to cover ailments for a particular age group. One such plan is the family floater policy. These health insurance plans for family cover not just you, but also your family members in its scope. The premiums are priced accordingly considering the beneficiaries and the risks of ailments they face. However, when you add your parents to the family floater policy, here’s why you should reconsider:

Impact on premium

The most significant reason to avoid adding elderly parents in same family floater policy as yours is because it shoots up the premium. Health insurance plans for family are priced according to premiums based on the age of the eldest family member. It also ends its coverage for the entire family the moment the eldest member reaches the maximum age covered by the policy. At such time, you inevitably need to buy a separate policy for you and your family going through the purchase process all over again. Instead, buying a separate health insurance for senior citizens is beneficial in such a case. Also, if all the beneficiaries of the plan are young and healthy, the premiums are accordingly priced.

Coverage for pre-existing ailments

Elderly individuals, more often than not, are facing some or the other form of ailment, mostly due to age. These ailments in insurance terms at the time of buying health insurance are known as pre-existing ailments. With elderly parents a part of your family floater policy, it increases the premium due to coverage required for these already existing ailments. At times, insurance companies also add a waiting period for all beneficiaries due to such pre-existing ailment. So, it is best to purchase separate coverage for parents since it adds unnecessary terms for the entire family in your policy scope.

Effect on cumulative bonus

Insurance companies offer the facility of cumulative bonus, where the sum insured of your policy increases for every policy tenure without any claim. When parents are a part of the family floater policies, insurance claims are often raised for medical treatments availed. It is due to the increasing medical attention required as the body ages. This lowers the chances of additional sum insured available for all the young members of your family for severe and future medical treatments. Thus, a separate health insurance policy for parent is advised since it is only their policy where no such benefit is received whereas all other policies continue to accrue cumulative benefits.

Impact on coverage amount

Due to frequent hospitalisation required for elderly parents, often a lower amount is available for other family member in case of any medical treatment. Hence, you might be required to purchase a higher sum assure of your family floater plan thereby impacting the premium.

Considering all the above factors, you must avail a distinct health insurance for senior citizens for parents whereas continue to include all young beneficiaries in one single family floater plan. Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. For more details on benefits, exclusions, limitations, terms and conditions, please read sales brochure/policy wording carefully before concluding a sale.