Family insurance plans could be an affordable way to cover future hospitalisation costs borne by each eligible family member. Considering the rising medical costs, it is important to have a comprehensive and adequate health insurance plan for your loved ones. Give this post a read to know the benefits of family health insurance policies, their exclusions, claim settlement and a few useful insights about some of the best family floater plans available in India.
Comprehensive Coverage
You might consider purchasing a family insurance plan to prevent your household savings from getting drained to foot steep hospitalisation and medical bills. A typical family medical insurance plan comes with a range of coverage benefits depending on the chosen plan’s terms and conditions.
Here are a few major advantages of opting for a family medical insurance plan:
Lower Dependency on Group Insurance Plans
Your employer might offer you a group health insurance plan that covers your family members. However, these could be operative for as long as you work at that company. Therefore, to enjoy enhanced and customised coverage benefits for a longer time, you might want to go for family insurance plans.
Also read: 7 Questions To Ask Before Getting A Health Insurance
Protection Against Medical Emergencies
Medical emergencies like accidents or unexpected hospitalisations can happen to anyone at any time. Thus, it’s extremely critical to have adequate family insurance plans as a protection in place to minimise the financial burden caused by such medical emergencies.
Also read: What Is A Family Health Insurance Premium Calculator? How To Use
Provide Protection to Vulnerable Members of the Family
A few members of the family, like senior citizen parents, may have pre-existing diseases owing to which they might be at higher risk of requiring medical treatment involving hospitalisation. As such, it makes sense to prioritise purchasing a health insurance plan that adequately covers each family member to protect household finances in the face of a medical emergency.
Exclusions under Family Insurance Plans
Family insurance plans could come with a number of features and benefits like cashless treatment for eligible members up to sum insured in network hospitals, complimentary annual medical checkups, no-claim bonuses at the end of a claim-free year, etc. depending on the policy terms and conditions. However, there might be certain exclusions and riders too, such as:
As such, you’ll be well-advised to carefully go through the terms and conditions of a family insurance plan before finalising any decision to avoid any unpleasant surprises later on.
Also read: Importance Of Cashless Hospitalisation: How Does It Work, Types and Benefits
A family insurance plan or a family floater plan is a medical insurance plan where you can add all eligible family members, like yourself, your spouse, your dependent children up to the age of 21-25 years, and your parents, to the policy. All the enrolled family members share the policy’s sum insured or the maximum amount that can be used to settle eligible medical claims, in a policy year.
For example, if you have a family insurance plan for five family members (yourself, spouse, child, father and mother) with a sum insured of Rs.10 lakh, any of the members can settle medical claims up to Rs.10 lakh in a year. However, if one member, say your father, uses Rs.5 lakh midway in the year in a claim, that would leave all the members with Rs.5 lakh to settle any other claim during the remaining months of the policy year. But if one member uses Rs.10 lakh in a claim in a year, this would mean all the members will not be able to make any other claim during the remaining months of the policy year as the full sum insured of Rs.10 lakh has already been exhausted.
In addition, all the members can enjoy cashless treatment using the family insurance plan in a network hospital and reimbursement of expenses for treatment received at a non-network hospital, as per the terms and conditions of the insurer.
Also read: Managed Care Plans: What Is It & How Does It Work?
Plans | Features |
Bajaj Allianz Health Guard Family Floater Plan | Cashless network hospitals: 6500+Claim settlement ratio: 98% Processing time: 1 hour |
Care Family Health Insurance | Cashless network hospitals: 16500+Claim settlement ratio: 95.2% Processing time: 2 hours |
Cholamandalam Healthline Insurance Policy | Cashless network hospitals: 9500+Claim settlement ratio: 95% Processing time: NA |
Future Generali Future Health Suraksha Plan | Cashless network hospitals: 5500+Claim settlement ratio: 92% Processing time: NA |
Navi Health Insurance | Cashless network hospitals: 10,000+Claim settlement ratio: 97% Cover up to Rs. 1 croreProcessing time: 20 minutes |
IFFCO Tokio Family Health Insurance Policy | Cashless network hospitals: 6800+Claim settlement ratio: 99.71% Processing time: NA |
Liberty Secure Health Connect Policy | Cashless network hospitals: 5000+Claim settlement ratio: 81.03%Processing time: 6 hours |
National Parivar Mediclaim Policy (Floater Policy) | Cashless network hospitals: 6000+Claim settlement ratio: 83.78% Processing time: NA |
New India Assurance Floater Mediclaim Policy | Cashless network hospitals: 1500+Claim settlement ratio: 92.68% Processing time: NA |
Star Family Health Optima Insurance Plan | Cashless network hospitals: 11000+Claim settlement ratio: 90% Processing time: 2 hours |
Also Read: Critical Illness Insurance Plans Available In India: Types And Benefits
Also read: What Is A Cardiac Health Insurance Policy? Why Is It Important?
* Monthly premium may vary as per the plan opted for. ** Condition Apply
Now that you know a few important things about medical insurance for your family, you can consider purchasing the one that best meets your family’s unique medical insurance requirements. This is especially critical for families that do not have any existing insurance protection. While doing so, please read the terms and conditions of your shortlisted policies or reach out to your chosen insurer’s customer service to ensure you make informed decisions. More importantly, do not just focus on the premium cost but also the policy features and an adequate sum insured while finalising your decision.
If you want to buy a comprehensive health insurance plan you can try Navi Health Insurance. Just download the Navi app and sign up for the policy today.
Also read: What Is Incurred Claim Ratio In Health Insurance? How To Calculate ICR?
Ans: Yes, you are eligible for tax benefits on medical insurance policy premiums paid under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961. You can claim tax deduction benefits of up to Rs.1 lakh for premiums paid in a financial year depending on the age of the enrolled family members.
Ans: Yes, many family insurance plans provide coverage benefits for alternative AYUSH treatments. This includes eligible hospitalisation expenses incurred while getting treatments through Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy, Yoga, etc.
Ans: No, family insurance plans usually cover dependent children up to the age of 25 years, while some insurers cap this age at 18 or 21 years. The policy will exclude children older than the prescribed age limit, and they will have to get separate health insurance plans for themselves.
Ans: Yes, you can get a fixed daily cash allowance under a family health insurance policy depending on the terms and conditions of your policy. This could cover day-to-day expenses incurred every day when you get hospitalised up to a certain limit.
Ans: The online purchase process allows you to compare plans, get quotes and make an informed decision regarding your insurance choice. You can also use digital payment options like net banking, debit cards, credit cards and UPI to safely purchase health policies and pay premiums from the comfort of your home.
Ans: You can add an eligible family member (your spouse, dependent children up to 18 to 25 years, parents or parents-in-law) during policy renewal or midway during the policy year depending on the terms and conditions of your insurance provider. If you’re eligible for this benefit, you can either add members online or reach out to the customer service of your insurance company.
Ans: Yes, many health insurance companies offer cashless treatment facilities in network hospitals up to the policy sum insured under a family medical plan. It’s always better to opt for a health insurance company that offers a cashless treatment facility for all eligible family members. Also, it’s better to choose an insurer that has a wide range of network hospitals and a high claim settlement ratio.
Ans: Yes, a family floater policy can continue providing coverage to other covered members of the insurance plan even if the primary insured member dies during the policy year subject to terms and conditions. However, the applicable premiums must be paid in time to prevent a policy lapse. That being said, next of kin should inform the insurance provider at the earliest about the demise of the primary member and submit relevant documents if required.
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