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In old age, health insurance becomes a pillar of support, much like a caring grandson who stands by his grandparents through thick and thin. The possibility of hospitalisation is also high during the later years of life. If you have got yourself covered with an insurance policy, let your parents enjoy the financial security net. Buy medical insurance plans for parents and deliver them the gift of freedom.
Why is Buying Health Insurance for Parents Important?
Health is in trouble during the medical emergency but financial constraints add to the pain.Health insurance not only safeguards the insured but the entire family too. All the family members are protected from financial stress with an insurance policy.
Love Means Security: Protecting your parents life with a shield of health insurance shows your true love towards them. Our parents have been fulfilling all their responsibilities, now, it is our turn to pay back. Buying health insurance plans for parents means stress-free tomorrow.
Personalised and Comprehensive Benefits: Separate medical insurance for parents means you can get coverage for pre-existing illness, say heart problem or diabetes. You can pick a medical policy for parents to ensure extensive protection against burdening expenses. It also provides cashless hospitalisation facilities allowing you to admit your parents to any nearby hospital and avail of the benefits of cashless treatment with an insurance plan.
Tax Benefits: According to Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, you can claim tax deductions of up to Rs 1,00,000 on insurance premium. Also, it offers benefits for senior citizens as they can claim higher tax benefits of up to Rs 50,000. Also, HUFs can also claim tax deductions, so it is overall beneficial.
High Sum Insured (SI): Health complications increase with age. The cost of hospitalisation is soaring faster than our expectations, at Care Health Insurance, we understand it. Hence, we offer maximal insurance coverage. A health insurance policy for parents of Rs 1 crore is available with us as well.
Safeguard Your Parent’s Retirement Funds: Even one-time hospitalisation can exhaust the entire retirement funds. But you can protect your parent’s lifelong savings by buying parental insurance coverage and ease their life.
How to Choose Health Insurance for Parents?
Ideally, the higher the coverage, the better it is. However, there is a direct correlation between the premium that you have to pay and the coverage that you receive. However, some companies will offer to cover more than the basic hospitalisation and pre-and-post-hospitalisation expenses. They offer you a consumable allowance, allowance for a companion, domiciliary hospitalisation, dialysis cover and other add-ons. So, ensure that you get the best value for your money.
Flexibility
Some policies allow you to recharge the sum insured, up to 100% of the original SI, if the amount gets exhausted. At a different level, some companies allow you to purchase a policy for 1-3 years. Look for such options that build useful flexibility into your plan.
Co-Payments
Parents’ health insurance policies usually have a co-payment clause. This means that the insured has to bear a portion of the claim amount (as specified in the policy). While IRDAI has stipulated that at least 50% of the pre-insurance medical investigation cost must be reimbursed to the parents, look for a policy that gives you the best deal.
Maximum Age to Renew
This differs from issuer to issuer, but some companies offer 'Lifelong renewal'. When you choose an insurer, look for such options.
Pre-existing Illnesses and Waiting Periods
This may be the most important factor to consider since most companies have a waiting period before they cover pre-existing illnesses, and some do not cover them at all. Naturally, the lower the waiting period, the better, and in case you have pre-existing illnesses, as defined in the policy, they should be covered, at least eventually.
Simple Claim Process
This factor is relevant, irrespective of what age you are. Make sure you understand how the health insurance claim process works in advance so that you do not lose time or effort following up on a claim.
Day-care Procedures
A lot of medical policies for parents do not pay for Daycare procedures. To claim the insurance, hospitalisation is compulsory for 24 hours. Due to modernisation today, there are a lot of procedures that do not require any hospitalisation. Hence, it is wiser to opt for a policy that covers the highest amount of daycare procedures.
Network Hospitals
While an emergency at any age requires immediate medical assistance, its importance is even greater for parents. It only warrants a person to check how wide an insurer’s network hospital strength is. It is advised to go for an insurer that covers the highest number of hospitals across a wide range of cities.
Comprehensive Coverage
At a progressed age, it is common for an individual to undergo a series of diagnostic tests & routine check-ups that involve doctor consultation costs, etc. To support this, the health insurance policy must cover expenses incurred before hospitalisation as well. These are called Pre-Hospitalisation expenses.
It is to be noted that since health insurance for Parents tends to be expensive, experts recommend individuals who are looking for health insurance for themselves & their parents to take separate policies.
Things to Consider While Buying Health Insurance for Parents
Several parental insurance plans are available; pick the best one to reap the most benefits. The main factors to be considered while buying health insurance for parents are given below-
Go for Maximum Coverage
You should look to the plan that provides maximum coverage and caters to your parent’s health care needs. It should include treatment expenses, offer add-on covers like no claim bonus, OPD care, reduction in waiting period, etc.
Premium Amount
Pick an affordable premium, for that you need to evaluate different premium options. The amount depends on age, medical ailments, income, lifestyle habits, etc. So, choose one that aligns with your financial condition and your parents’ hobbies.
Read Exclusions
Exclusions are the situations that are not covered under health insurance policies and you are not entitled to file a claim for the same. Therefore, you should check the exclusions list and see what all diseases are not included in your policy.
Waiting Period
It is the specified time under which the policy is payable. For normal health insurance, it is 30 days from the date of policy issuance, and for slow growing diseases, it is 24 months and for pre-existing diseases, it is 36 months.
Simple Claim Process
Select an insurance company with a hassle-free and quick claim process. Check the insurer’s claim settlement ratio and decide accordingly.
What is Covered in Health Insurance for Parents?
You can access the best medical facility during any emergency hospitalisation with health insurance for your parents. At Care Health Insurance, we have different plans for senior citizens, you can pick an individual or a floater option and get the following coverage and benefits:
- Hospitalisation Cover: The plan covers IPD and OPD medical treatment expenses.
- DaycareTreatments Cover: Your parents can get coverage for modern daycare treatments for heart, eyes, ENT, tongue, cancer and other surgeries.
- Pre and Post-hospitalisation Coverage: Diagnostic tests and medication, up to 30 days before hospitalisation and up to 60 days after discharge from the hospital are covered.
- Pre-existing Diseases Coverage: Treatment expenses for pre-existing diseases, with a minimum waiting period, is covered.
- Second Opinion: You can get a second opinion for any major illness or injury in a policy year.
- Organ Donor Cover: For treating a critical ailment, one may incur organ donor expenses up to the specified amount, subject to policy T&C.
- Automatic Recharge: If you exhaust the sum insured, it automatically gets recahrged up to the SI amount per policy year.
- No Claims Bonus: If you don’t file a claim, you get a specified percentage increase in SI every year.
- Annual Health Check-Up: Your parents can get medical check-up benefits annually to keep a constant track of their health.
What Does Health Insurance for Parents Not Cover?
Coverage for the following can’t be feasible under a medical insurance policy for parents:
- Diseases contracted or diagnosed within 30 days of receiving the health insurance for parents.
- Any sort of non-allopathic treatment
- Expenses occurring for self-inflicted injuries
- Cosmetic surgery
- Expenses occurring for the treatment of drug abuse
- Expenses for general dental treatment, lenses, and spectacles, unless needed due to an accident
- Injuries occurring as a result of war, etc
- Medical expenses for the treatment of AIDS
Myths About Parental Health Insurance
Some people believe that their parents do not require insurance cover if they are healthy. This is a misconception. Here, we will list and debunk some common myths about Senior Citizen Health Insurance. Take a look:
1. Parents are Healthy and Do Not Need a Health Cover
Many people assume that if there is no illness, there is no need for health cover. This is the biggest myth owing to which they do not realise the need for buying health insurance for senior citizens. Having a health cover will ensure there is no serious impact on one’s savings if case of emergency expenditures.
2. Pre-existing Ailments may Not be Covered
Health plans designed for senior citizens have a waiting period for pre-existing diseases. This means that, unlike the permanent exclusions, pre-existing ailments are excluded only for a specified time known as the waiting period.
3. Parents are Already Covered under Mediclaim Policy by Employer
Many companies offer group mediclaim policies to their employees with coverage for dependant parents. But such corporate policies are valid until you stay in the present company. So, a separate senior citizens plan is required for them.
4. Senior Citizens Health Insurance Policies are Expensive
Age is one of the various factors which are considered for deciding the premium a policyholder would have to pay. Premium amounts are on the higher side for senior citizens. But there are various other benefits that a senior citizen health policy comes with like domiciliary hospitalisation, organ donor expenses, alternative treatment cover and more.
How is Group Health Insurance Beneficial for Parents?
If you are the sole bread earner of your family and have dependant parents, wife, and children, it’s advisable to include them under group health insurance. Read below its benefits:
- Affordable Premium: The premium for group health policy is comparatively low. You get the coverage for all your family members while paying only one premium.
- No Pre-Policy Medical Checkup: Your parents do not need to undergo any pre-policy medical check-up and avail of hassle-free coverage from day one. No information related to past medical history is required.
- No Waiting Period: Unlike another individual health policy, you do need to wait until the completion of the waiting period duration to make a claim. Most of the time, you and your insured family members get the coverage from day one of the policy issuances.
- Coverage for Pre-Existing Diseases: If your elderly parents already have any pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or BMI, then also they get coverage without any waiting period. It means they can undergo treatment for such pre-existing diseases and avail the claim.
Disclaimer: Please read the brochure and prospectus to know more about our health insurance plans, as conditions may vary.
