A Complete Guide to Family Health Insurance in India

Ever wondered if there is a single way to protect the health of your entire family with just one single premium? If you are worried about rising medical costs, you would be interested in buying a health insurance plan that can offer sufficient insurance coverage to each member of the family. If you are the head of the family, & would like to have all such benefits in a single policy, you should go for a family floater health insurance.

Let’s first understand what family floater health insurance is.

It is a policy which covers the entire family with a single insurance plan. It can be further customized as per your family’s needs.
Benefits of a family floater health insurance

Also Read: How To Take Care Of The Health Of Your Ageing Parents

Family floater plans offer many benefits to a family. Below are some important benefits –

• Your family gets the much required health insurance coverage against rising medical expenses. This includes pre & post hospitalization expenses, doctor consultation, ambulance cover and other medical expenses arising in case of illness and accidents. Also, some policies give the benefit of a medical checkup for the entire family under a single plan.
• With family floater, you don’t need to maintain and keep track of several health insurance policies. It also means great affordability.
• Family floater health plans are more affordable than individual plans. Further, in case one family member falls ill, the entire family cover is available to the sick family member for the treatment. Also, in the case of death of any of the insured members, the rest of the family members can continue to use the policy as usual. Needless to say, family floater plans offer extensive coverage as compared to individual policies.
• Tax benefits are also available with family floater health insurance plans under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act. You can also double the tax benefit if you are paying premium on the policy for your senior citizen parents.

Also Read: How Long-Term Health Insurance Can Benefit You

Who all are covered under the family health insurance? Normally, spouse and kids are added automatically. In some family health insurance policies, the plan can be extended to cover dependent parents, in-laws, and siblings as well. The premium of the policy is decided on the basis of the age of the eldest family member. How does family floater health cover work?

To understand how the family floater health insurance works, let’s assume a hypothetical situation: Mr Rajiv Sharma’s family includes his wife Shama and two children. He has family floater health coverage of Rs. 10 lakhs for a year. During the year, Rajiv contacts malaria and undergoes treatment in a hospital. The total medical expense incurred is Rs. 2 lakhs, which is paid with the help of family health insurance. Now for the remaining year, the family is left with Rs 8 lakhs coverage (10-2) which all four- Rajiv, Shama and children – can avail of.

Though the sum insured is available for the entire family, in case one or two members avail the claim amounting to total sum insured under the policy then the same will not be available for the rest of the members.

How to choose the right family health insurance plan?

For choosing the right family floater insurance plan, one needs to be diligent towards the family’s needs. Here are some points which should be considered by the person who wants to buy a family floater health insurance plan:

1. Sum insured: It should be carefully analysed so that even if one member utilizes a large part of the sum insured, enough is left for the remaining insured members.

2. Risk factor: If a person of higher age band is included in the policy, it increases premium rates. Also, there are chances that a person of a higher age group will take up much of the benefits of the policy. In such a situation, it would be useful if you buy separate health insurance policies for them.

3. Terms and conditions: Here are certain important points that should be considered while choosing the family health insurance:

Check whether the insurer offers co-payment.

Co-payment is when the policyholder pays a certain part of the total claim. Know the deductible: Deductible is the amount that one requires paying from his/her pocket in case of a claim. The remaining amount will be paid by the insurer.

Know room limit: Also called the capping amount, room limit is the amount up to which the insurance policy will pay for your hospital room in case of hospitalization.

If you are looking for a hassle free way of getting insurance for the entire family, consider buying a family floater health insurance policy.

Disclaimer: All information in this article has been provided by HDFC Ergo and NDTV is not responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the same.