Check Health Insurance Policy For Single Parent
Being a single parent has never been easy. However, in the present times, with the increasing cost of healthcare, it has become harder to safeguard your and your child’s health.
Well, that’s when health insurance for single parents becomes a lifesaver that offers financial security to manage any unexpected medical expenses for your child.
This blog is your guide to understanding the need for health insurance for single parents and finding the best plans out there for you.
Table of Contents
Understanding The Need For Health Insurance For Single Parents
Let the truth be told, being a single parent in the present time is a hard task. After all, you never know what the future holds for you. That’s when having health insurance for single parents becomes a necessity. Let’s explore some more crucial points that’ll help us understand the need for health insurance for single parents.
- Rising Healthcare Costs: Inflation is everywhere, and medical treatments are no exception. With the rising cost of healthcare, an unforeseen illness or accident could drain all your savings. However, with a good insurance plan, covering all these medical expenses can be an easy task. Moreover, it helps you focus on your family’s well-being rather than just worrying about the finances.
- Coverage For Your Children: In order to protect your kids from all diseases, frequent medical check-ups, vaccinations, or timely treatments are essential. Health insurance ensures that you can manage all these costs, ensuring the best care for your child.
- Long-term Protection: The journey of a single parent is never easy. Especially when you grow old, the risk of age-related diseases increases. Therefore, having health insurance keeps you worry-free down the road.
- Access to Quality Care: When you purchase a good health insurance policy, you get access to top-notch health care services from a wide range of network hospitals. Thus, you and your kids have the finest care when and wherever needed.
All in all, health insurance has become a necessity for single parents, helping them bring peace to themselves and their kids.
Types of Health Insurance for Single Parents
There are various types of health insurance plans available for single parents in India. Here we list the most common one:
1. Individual Health Insurance
Coverage: As the name suggests, these plans are designed for an individual’s medical treatment expenses, i.e. the single parent.
Benefits: Policyholders are given high flexibility when it comes to choosing plans and coverage levels.
Drawbacks: Individual health insurance may not cover anyone other than the policyholder. Thus, it leaves your kids without coverage.
2. Family Floater Health Insurance
Coverage: These plans are ideally suitable for a single-parent family as they cover the single parent as well as the dependents.
Benefits: It serves as a great cost-effective solution for families who seek broad coverage for all family members.
Drawbacks: In case of any pre-existing disease or condition, a waiting period may be applicable.
3. Critical Illness Insurance
Coverage: Critical illness insurance provides a lump sum coverage upon the diagnosis of an illness.
Benefits: In situations of critical illness, these plans serve as great financial aid.
Drawbacks: Insurers may not consider all illnesses critical; hence, limited coverage is available.
4. Senior Citizen Health Insurance
Coverage: These plans provide financial coverage for age-related medical needs for elderly individuals.
Benefits: It offers great financial security against age-specific health conditions in older ages.
Drawbacks: Senior citizen plans are often with high premiums and limited coverage benefits.
5. Employer-Provided Health Insurance
Coverage: Employer-provided health insurance is generally financial security coverage for both single parents and their dependents.
Benefits: As the policy is fully or partially offered by the employer, it makes a great cost-effective plan for single parents.
Drawbacks: The employer may have some restrictions on coverage.
6. Government Health Insurance Schemes
Coverage: These Government-backed schemes provided medical coverage for eligible individuals.
Benefits: Such policies often have affordable premiums and a wide range of network hospitals.
Drawbacks: There may be eligibility requirements and limited coverage options.
7. Short Term Health Insurance
Single parents and fathers who are between jobs or waiting for coverage to start at the beginning of the year should look into short-term health insurance. Short-term health insurance policies may assist you and your family in filling any gaps in coverage you may have, as well as provide a safety net in the event of a medical emergency. If you need health insurance for a single parent right now, this is a terrific alternative. While short-term health insurance policies are less expensive, they often provide less adequate protection than just an individual or employer-sponsored plan.
Essential Coverage Features For Single Parents
When choosing health insurance for single parents, it is quite important to look for certain essential coverage features that’ll make your life as a single parent better –
1. Paediatric Care
It is important to check if the health insurance plan for single parents includes medical coverage for your children, too. Ensure it pays all bills for your child’s health care, such as vaccinations, routine check-ups, and hospitalisations. Advice – look for health insurance plans that offer both inpatient and outpatient care coverage. Thus, doctor visits, surgeries, diagnostic tests, etc., will also be covered.
2. Maternity Care
Your health insurance plan must provide maternity care if you plan to expand your family. A good health insurance plan with maternity care includes coverage for prenatal check-ups, delivery, and post-natal care. There may be some coverage for your newborn, such as vaccinations and regular check-ups.
3. Critical Illness Coverage
Financial security is a must in situations of critical illness like cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Having critical illness coverage brings peace that you have a lump sum amount to manage the financial burden of medical treatments.
4. Mental Health Coverage
Living as a single parent is hard and can significantly affect mental health. Thus, a health insurance plan that covers counselling, therapy, and medication charges can be a great help to deal with stress, anxiety, or depression.
5. Emergency Coverage
Emergency coverage is important in situations of sudden misshapen events such as accidents, stroke, etc. Make sure your health insurance plans cover such sudden medical treatment emergencies. This includes coverage for accidental injuries, emergency room visits, ambulance service, etc.
6. Pre-existing Conditions
A good health insurance plan is one that doesn’t have a long waiting period for coverage for pre-existing health issues. Moreover, look for plans that offer a wide range of network hospitals so you can have medical treatments in any city.
Best Health Insurance Companies and Plan Offering Coverage for Single Parents
|
Plan Name |
Insurance Provider |
Coverage Amount (Rs) |
|
Care Health |
1 lakh to 3 crore |
|
|
Aditya Birla Capital |
3 lakh to 25 lakh |
|
|
Future Generali |
2 lakh to 10 lakh |
|
|
HDFC ERGO |
2 lakh to 5 lakh |
|
|
Bajaj Allianz |
50,000 to 10 lakh |
|
|
Chola MS General Insurance |
5 lakh to 5 crore |
Conclusion
With that, we end the insightful conversation on the importance of health insurance for single parents. We certainly hope that this blog will help you find the right health insurance plan that offers all the essential coverage benefits for you and your kids.
Remember, it is always wise to consult a professional health insurance company to understand the policy details in depth.
Also read: Health Insurance Policy - An Overview
Lesser Known Benefits Of Health Insurance Policy
FAQs
Ques 1. What coverage benefits do I get with the family floater plan?
Ans. A family floater plan provides cover for the single parent as well as the dependents.
Hence, it is ideally suitable for a single-parent family.
Ques 2. Can I get instant coverage for pre-existing conditions?
Ans. No, generally, there's a waiting period by the insurers before providing coverage for any pre-existing condition.
Ques 3. How much coverage can I get under the HDFC ERGO Optima Senior Plan?
Ans. The HDFC ERGO Optima Senior Plan offers a coverage amount of 2 lakh to 5 lakh.
