Tips to Choose Right Health Insurance Plan for Senior Citizens

Our parents support us throughout our lives and take responsibility for every small need of ours and stand beside us as a strong pillar, but with time and as they grow older they need our attention and care too. Also, with growing age, a medical emergency can arise anytime, that’s where it becomes important to secure them with a health insurance policy so that the medical emergency would not become a financial emergency.

Tips to Choose the Right Health Insurance Plans for Senior Citizens

There are so many companies and policy options available in the market but to choose the right one which fulfills all our needs is a task in itself. So here we present some tips to choose the best insurance plan for your parents.

• Individual policy- First thing to note is that for parents and aged people it is very important to buy a separate policy of their own, which means an individual plan and not a floater plan or family plan because with older age it is most likely that the insurance would be claimed.

• Claim Settlement Ratio (CSR)- It is the ratio of insurance claims settled by the insurer and the number of claims received. Do check it before buying the plan, it would be advisable to go with insurance providers with a CSR of 90% and above.

• Choose Zone A Cover- Most of the plans available in the market are divided into two zones that is Zone A which includes cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. Whereas Zone B includes other parts of the country. The premium is relatively higher for Zone A cities because of high healthcare costs in these cities than Zone B. It is advisable to choose Zone A rather than B even if you reside in Zone B because if you choose A, you can claim the insurance in both the zones. Also, you can consider the company which gives zone upgrade policy so that you can upgrade zone later even if you reside in zone B.

• Co-payment – Some companies offer a co-payment option under which some part of the claim cost would be covered by the insurer and some part would be paid by you. Do check for the co-payment clause while buying a senior citizen health insurance plan.

• High Sum Insured- It would be better to go for high cover plans in case of aged people as there is a high chance of medical emergency and it would be a waste to buy an insurance policy if it wouldn’t be able to cover the whole amount at the time. With the increase in cover, the amount of premium also increases, so choose the plan with the highest cover and also the premium you can afford.

• Long Term Policy- Long-term policies bring many benefits to it. Some companies offer discounts in premium plans, after 2-3 years, the amount of premium may decrease.

• Option To Increase Sum Insured- It is advisable to opt for a flexible plan in which there is an option to increase the amount of cover with time as required.

• OPD Facility- Try searching for plans which include OPD facilities too that means they will cover the cost of OPD too.

• Pre-existing Diseases Coverage- There are plans in the market which may cover the treatment of already existing diseases such as diabetes. Do check out that list before buying a plan.

• Waiting Period - You cannot claim the insurance just after buying it, there is a waiting time period after completion of which claims are admissible. Also, there is a separate list of waiting periods of all the facilities provided by the insurer. Do check for this while buying a health insurance plan for your parents.

Disclaimer: This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. Readers are advised not to rely on the contents of the article as conclusive in nature and should research further or consult an expert in this regard.