Should You Include Your Senior Parents In Family Health Insurance?
Family health insurance plans are a type of group health plan that allows you to include several members of your family under them. Most insurers permit you to add your parents, parents-in-law, your spouse and children, siblings, nephews, and so on. If you have senior parents, it may have crossed your mind as to whether it would it be a wise move to include them under the health insurance plan as persons above 55-60 years of age have different and more demanding medical needs. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of adding your parents to the family health insurance plan.
The pros
- Lower premiums
It is quite well known that family health insurance plans are cost-effective. As compared to insuring each family member with a separate individual health insurance plan, the rates for a family plan are going to be much lower. And since the premium rates for senior citizens tend to be higher, buying a separate policy for your parents would lead to quite an increase in your overall health insurance budget.
- Convenience
One reason why many people for family health insurance plans over multiple individual policies is the convenience that comes along. You have to pay only a single premium to the insurer, and your family is covered for the succeeding year. With multiple policies, you would have to pay multiple premiums as well. So, by including your parents in your family health insurance plans, you are not only saving money but a bit of time and effort as well.
The cons
- Compromised sum insured for the rest of the family members
As a result of their age, senior citizens tend to become ill/sick more frequently. Their chances of getting hospitalized are much higher; this results in frequent claims on the family health insurance and a rapidly depleting sum insured. While it is important that they receive the appropriate care and financial aid, it may lead to reduced coverage for the rest of the family members. To avoid this unfortunate scenario, it may be more reasonable to get your parents under a separate health insurance plan.
- Higher chances of policy getting rejected
Senior citizens often suffer from pre-existing illnesses. When you are planning to issue a family health insurance plan that includes your parents as well, the policy application has a higher chance of getting rejected. Even if it gets accepted, it may include several conditions or limitations on the coverage as a result of your parents’ pre-existing illnesses.
- Risk of losing No Claim Bonus
The No Claim Bonus is a type of discount or bonus offered on the premium of a health insurance policy if there have been no claims raised in the preceding year. The interesting thing about the NCB is that it keeps on increasing with each claim-free year, with the maximum being a 50% discount on the premium. However, the chances of losing out on the NCB are higher if you include your parents under family health insurance plans as they are more likely to make claims for reasons mentioned earlier.
As is evident from the points stated above, there are substantial pros as well as cons to adding senior parents to family health insurance plans. The effects of such a decision would also be influenced by factors such as your parents’ health, your budget, the health needs of the rest of the family members, your family’s lifestyle, and so on. So, do consider these when making the decision. Good luck and stay healthy.
