Family Floater Plan: Best Health Insurance Plans for Family

Fast-paced life, junk food on the go, pollution taking deeper roots across the country, unfortunate incidents, road accidents, contagious diseases, heart attacks and diabetes in young age, and many more things may result in any kind of medical emergency.

Are you prepared?:

Rising medical inflation can wipe off your lifetime's savings. You don't want that. Since, a medical emergency comes without any prior notice to anyone irrespective of age, gender, and location, it is better to have a health insurance plan. Take care of your loved ones - spouse, parents, and children and cover their medical cost with the help of a family health insurance plan.

Eligibility Criteria for Family Health Insurance Policy is as follows:

Entry Age for the Policyholder/Proposer under Family Health Insurance Plan:

In family health insurance, the eldest person becomes the policyholder. The entry age for a policyholder/proposer is from 18 to 65 years, while some insurance company may allow it up to the age of 70 years and above.

Entry Age for Family Members under Family Health Insurance Plan:

For Adults: The minimum entry age is 18 years and the maximum 65 years, while some insurance company may allow it up to the age of 70 years and above. For Dependent Children: The minimum age to children under the family health insurance is from 90 days (this may vary, some insurers may allow it from 30 days and some may have different entry age) to 25 years.

Medical Tests under Family Health Insurance Plan:

Few insurers ask for medical tests to be carried out at their nominated centers. While few insurers offer family health insurance policy up to certain age, say, 45 years without any medical tests. In some instances, insurers may make medical check-up as mandatory.

Eligibility for Renewal of Family Health Insurance Plan:

Almost all the insurance companies offer lifelong renewal. You need to renew your family health insurance policy every year to keep in force and renew before it expires. After the due date of renewal the insurance company gives a grace period of 30 days. If you want to keep the policy in force, you must renew before grace period ends or else the policy terminates.

Family health insurance covers in-patient hospitalization, pre-hospitalization, post-hospitalization, day care, health check-up, emergency ambulance service, etc. Let's see each in detail:

• In-patient Hospitalization: All the medical expenses due to hospitalization are covered. In case, if any of the insure family member is hospitalized for more than 24 hours, the insurance company will pay the medical expenses.
• Pre-hospitalization Expenses: Any medical expenses incurred before hospitalization are termed as pre-hospitalization expenses. For example, X-ray, MRI, blood test, urine tests, sonography results, etc. done before hospitalization are covered.
• Post-hospitalization Expenses: Any medical expenses incurred after the discharge from hospital are termed as post-hospitalization expenses. For example, medicines, or any medical tests done after the discharge to check the improvement.
• Ambulance Charges: Most of the insurance companies offering family health insurance plan covers emergency ambulance charges. The amount of the emergency ambulance charges varies from insurer to insurer.
• Hospital Cash: The insurance company provides daily cash allowance. This hospital cash can be utilized to cover the cost of the transportation or other basic requirements of the person attending the patient.
• Restore Benefit: Many health insurance companies offer restore benefit feature under family health insurance plan. This feature helps to reinstate the basic plan cover in case the coverage gets exhausted. However, restore benefit is applicable only for unrelated claims.
• Day care treatment: Day care treatments are the treatments that does not require 24 hours of hospitalization. For instance, medical expenses related to cataract which can be treated within few hours.

• An Initial Waiting Period : This refers to the waiting period of 30 days but may vary from insurer to insurer and may have even 90 days of waiting period from the date of policy issuance. However, any medical expenses arising due to an accident will be covered from day one.

• Check for Specific Waiting Period : Every family floater insurance provider specifies a list of specified illnesses for which any claim shall not be admissible during the first 1 or 2 years, which is called specific waiting period. For example, arthritis, benign ear, nose, and throat disorders, cataract, hernia, kidney stone, etc.

• Pre-existing waiting period : If any of the family member insured under a family floater plan is suffering from any pre-existing diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, any heart ailments or any other ailment at the time of purchase of family health insurance plan is not covered for a specific time period. The treatment for a pre-existing disease is covered after the waiting period. The pre-existing waiting period may vary from 1 year to 4 years depending on the insurer. But, mostly the waiting period for pre-existing diseases under a family floater plan is 4 years.