Why You Shouldn't Include Parents in Your Family Health Insurance Policy?

“Health is Wealth” - They Say.

This means that you’re the richest person on this planet if you have a healthy family. In fact, the statement is valid for every single member of your family, as they all can proudly say that they’re healthy. This could be because you ensured the safety of their health. By doing what? By feeding them healthy food? Really!! We say by gifting them all a family health insurance plan with adequate coverage in all sorts of scenarios. On that not, can you guess why we emphasize on not including your parents in your family health plan? We don’t mean that you don’t buy health insurance for them. Not really!

*All savings are provided by the insurer as per the IRDAI approved insurance plan. Standard T&C apply.

Don’t Include Your Parents in Your Family Health Insurance Policy! Why?

You must assure them the safety of their health and tell them you have got their back. In fact, it’s your responsibility to provide them with adequate health coverage. However, what we meant was you should buy them a separate health insurance policy. We’ll explain this below.

If you’ve already been looking for a family floater health insurance policy to ensure the health safety of your spouse, children, and parents, then you must have heard of some insurers allowing you to do the same. Well, it’s a trap and nothing else. Seriously! Insurers tell you about various health insurance policies with add-on benefits of including your parents in your existing or a new health insurance plan if you don’t already have one. Stay away from such insurance policies.

You better purchase a separate policy for your parents. Here are some key reasons why you should not include your parents in your health insurance policy.

#1. The premium of a family floater health insurance plan is subject to the age of the eldest member of your family.

Your current health status is one of the key aspects that more or less affect the premium you need to pay in order to avail the coverage. It is evident that you at the age of 25 years are less prone to diseases or a pre-existing medical condition than you at the age of 40 years.

This is why they say, “Buy health insurance at a young age.”

Also, the amount of premium you need to pay to avail health insurance at the age of 25 years will be way too less than what you’ll have to pay at the age of 40 years.

So, if you think you should include your parents in your family health insurance plan while you‘re the eldest member covered by the policy as of now, then you’re about to make a wrong decision.

Let’s Take an Example.

You have a family floater health insurance plan with a sum assured of Rs. 10 Lakh, where the insured persons are - You (30 years), Spouse (28 years) and your Daughter (2 years), whereas you parents (Father 60 years and Mother 60 years). As stated above, the premium payable for your existing policy will increase significantly. Also, the policy will terminate as soon as your father (the eldest member of the family) reaches the maximum age covered by the policy.

In this case, all other family members will have to buy a separate health insurance policy, each at a different cost. With this, the claim history as well as coverage for pre-existing diseases vanishes, which used to renew automatically every year. The same goes for children who can be covered by a family floater plan until they turn 25 (mostly). Once the policy terminates, they also have to buy individual health insurance plans while compromising on the benefit of their previous claim history. There are policies that have no specific provision, in case of the survival of the family members and the death of the senior most member of the family.

Therefore, it is better that you purchase separate health insurance policies for your parents.

*All savings are provided by the insurer as per the IRDAI approved insurance plan. Standard T&C apply.

#2. Any pre-existing disease will load the premium for the coverage availed by the entire family.

As you probably know that the premium for a health insurance policy to be issued to a person with a pre-existing disease is comparatively high, it’s better to purchase a separate health insurance policy for such a person in your family. In case you include a person (any of your parents or your spouse) in your family floater plan, then it will load the premium for the expected coverage to your entire family.

Parents are the eldest members of the family and they are prone to one or more diseases with increasing age. Therefore, if you are thinking of including your parents in your existing family floater health insurance plan, then the premium most likely is to be loaded, in case any of your parents have is diagnosed with a pre-existing disease.

#3. No Claim Bonus or NCB Could be Affected.

In case of a health insurance policy, if you do not make a claim in a policy year, you are entitled to receive no claim bonus in terms of a discount in the premium at renewal or add-on benefits. However, since in case of family floater health insurance policy, the NCB vanishes right there and then if a family member makes a claim.

It is evident that you become more prone to diseases due to deteriorating health conditions. Therefore, your chances of getting hospitalized increase significantly.

Now, if you include your parents in your current family floater plan and they get hospitalized to a pre-existing medical condition or all of a sudden, the NCB is affected. In case they have a separate health insurance plan, the NCB of only their own policy will be affected.

#4. The Coverage for you Might be a Little When you Need It.

You might have coverage of Rs. 10 Lakh under your family floater policy, which is enough for a family of 4. However, the same coverage might not be enough for a family of 6 (after including you parents). If one or more members of your family keep getting hospitalized due to recurring medical condition, the coverage for you might not be enough when you actually need it.

Therefore, if you still want to include your parents in your existing family health plan, make sure you increase the sum assured by the policy.

Conclusion

With the aforementioned facts stated above, it is evident that you should purchase separate health insurance policies for your parents, as including them in your family floater health insurance policy is most likely to increase the premium.

Since there is a big age gap between you and your parents (they must be around 60), they are likely to have a pre-existing disease that could load your premium.