Individual or Family Floater Health Insurance Policy

A Family floater health insurance policy is a better option if you want your entire family to be covered under a single health or mediclaim insurance policy, the reason is that you get a higher cover at a lower cost and all the family members are covered for a much larger cover as compared to an individual policy.In comparison to an Individual health insurance policy, a family floater will cost at least 25 to 30% lower. One more point which goes in favor of Family Floater is that, you have only one document to manage, but if you buy an individual policy then for every member you have separate documents to manage. But at the same time there are some issues related to Family Floater policy which you should be aware of i.e.

• Individual policy is available for people above 60 years, but you cannot cover a person above 60 in a family floater health policy.

• In case there is more than one claim in a particular year, then the other family members are left with less cover, because the sum insured remains the same for all the family members. The only solution for this, is to get a higher cover when you are planning for a family floater heath insurance policy or medical policy.

• There are some constraints is a Family floater policy in India. A Family floater is only allowed for – Husband, Wife and Children. In case you want to cover your parents and/or siblings in the same policy, it is still not available in India.

Example :

The Rakesh Family is covered under an individual health insurance plan –

Mr. Rakesh Rs. 2 lakh, his Wife Rs. 1 lakh, their son and daughter Rs.50,000 each and they have paid premium for all these 4 health insurance policies. In an unforeseen situation, wherein surgery and post hospitalisation bill of their son amounts to Rs. 1.10 lakh. The existing policy will cover only Rs. 50,000, while Mr. Rakesh will have to bear the balance Rs. 60,000 from his own pocket.

With Family Health Floater Insurance plan if they buy a policy of 4 lacs, each member of Rakesh family is covered up to Rs. 4 lakh. Thus, Family Floater would have covered entire Rs. 1.10 lakh medical expenses of Mr. Rakesh ‘s son.