Health insurance for your parents most often falls into the category of senior health insurance plans. These plans are specifically designed for parents who are over years of age. It is an essential instrument that you need to procure to save yourself from a financial drain in times of medical contingencies.
Your parents are far more vulnerable to a probability of diseases and hospitalization than you. Thus, the premium amount charged for their health plans is higher and has more clauses than other health plans. The reason is justified on two grounds:
- Foremost, the cost of medical treatment is rising in India at a rate of about 20% per year.
- The chances of making a claim are much higher with a senior citizen’s health plan.
We would now try to understand how the premium amount for your Parents’ Health Insurance Plan is calculated. Let’s check out a few leading factors deciding it.
- Existing health plan
Your parents might have purchased a health policy for themselves. In case they have an existing health plan, the premium amount is likely to be less as compared to the brand new health policy. In case, there have been no-claim years, the premium amount is likely to get lowered.
- Individual or couple
Just like you need to pay a lower premium amount in case of family floater against individual plans; likewise, the premium amount gets lowered if you include both parents in the same health insurance plans as compared to individual plans for both parents.
- Age
Age is one of the most crucial factors determining the premium amount of a senior health plan. A higher age means a higher premium. The premium might go high even if you have an existing plan.
- Pre-existing disease
Another most important factor taken into consideration for premium calculation is the existence of pre-existing diseases. In India, it is quite common for people to suffer from problems like diabetes, heart problems like hypertension, obesity, etc. The waiting period for these diseases varies from zero to three years. Pre-existing diseases attract a higher premium.
- Copayment
A copayment is an intrinsic feature of senior health plans. It means that whenever medical billing comes; the insurance company would split the expenses with you to a pre-determined percentage. It could be ten percent to any higher percent that is affordable to you. A higher co-payment means that the premium amount would go down. Few like to forego the copayment feature. In that instance, the premium amount would spike up.
- Sum insured
Sum insured always plays a deciding role in determining the premium amount. A higher sum insured would automatically equate to a higher premium. An excellent way to bring it down is to lower the initial sum insured and make it more comprehensive with an added top-up cover.
- Critical illness
Most health insurance plans across ages do not cover critical illnesses like paralysis, cancer, heart attack, etc. They need to be covered with extra moves. You can either buy a separate cover for them or add them to your base plan as a top-up cover. If you are purchasing it as an add-on; the premium amount would go high.
- Miscellaneous features
As stated, there are always various extra features available that you can add to your base plan. Any addition would make the premium amount go higher.
One such feature is the domiciliary treatment i.e. medical treatment conducted at home for conditions that should ideally be treated at a hospital. The need for this is quite high with your parents. Hence, it would be best to get this add-on protection at an extra premium amount.
Another feature is the ambulance costs. It may or may not be part of the base plan. If taken as an add-on cover; it will increase the premium amount.
Yet another feature is organ transplant. In case your parents are donating any organ; their hospitalization and other associated costs would get covered. Your parents can avail of this benefit with an extra premium.
Wrapping up
There are plenty of dynamics that go into calculating the premium amount of any insurance plan. The calculation is complex but they are made easier via the online health insurance premium calculator. It gives you the premium amount instantly after you feed in the required data.
