Ravi is a 40-year-old father of two who is a software developer. Apart from his wife and children, Ravi also takes care of his old parents who live with him. Lately, he is thinking of buying a health insurance policy to cover the medical expenses of his family. Luckily for Ravi, excluding his parents who struggle with heart ailments, his family has enjoyed good health overall.
However, he now believes that at this stage of life that it's only his parents who are in need of a health insurance policy. Ravi recently heard about a family floater health insurance plan that can be purchased to cover his entire family at a considerably low premium. Bearing this in mind as well as the recent concerns on health, he is willing to purchase a mediclaim policy as soon as possible. Has Ravi walked in the right direction?
Here Ravi had to take 2 decisions in this aspect:
- First, whether his entire family needed health insurance or only it's just his elderly parents.
- Second, he had to decide what type of health insurance policy to buy.
Coming back to answering the first questions, Ravi should also cover himself and his family aside from purchasing health insurance for his parents. Although they may be having the benefit of good health now, unforeseen accidents or illnesses can result in fat medical bills that might land a big blow on their finances and savings.
The present health crisis emphasizes the need for a good medical cover more than ever. In addition, it is wise to start at an early age not only because of the cost advantages but also because a record of continual health cover makes it quite easier to get insurance when you need it later on in life.
Now the next decision that Ravi had to make was regarding the type of health insurance policy to choose. Here, Ravi may choose to go with a family floater health insurance policy that will cover his entire family or you may also opt for individual health covers.
At the same time as the family floater health policy will provide Ravi with the benefit of covering his entire family at a significantly lower premium cost and a larger amount of Sum Insured, it, however, comes with a number of drawbacks.
The most significant downside is that the premium of a family floater health insurance plan will basically depend upon the age of the oldest member of the family being covered; Ravi’s father in this case. Taking his age and medical complications into consideration, the premium will be higher.
On the other hand, a family floater policy has the additional issue of the policy terminating on the death of the main insured person. And under this circumstance, other members of the family will then be without cover and will have to take a new policy.
Ravi, therefore, should consider covering his parents separately with individual health policies so that they are sufficiently covered for their particular requirements. And since Ravi himself, his wife and children are young and healthy, a low-cost family floater health insurance policy will work just fine for them.
The decision on whether to go for a family floater health cover or individual health policies should not be taken on the basis of cost alone but also on the flexibility to tailor the health cover to match your specific needs.
