How to pick the right health insurance policy for your family?


COVID has made us all aware of the importance of a health insurance policy. Now the question arises, how to pick the right policy for you and your family? Read this article as we list our the pointers you need to pick the right health insurance policy for yourself.

Medical expenses can drain our lifelong savings. If not planned wisely, it can have a detrimental impact on our long-term objectives. To help us deal with unexpected medical expenses, insurance companies offer individual as well as family floater plans. The sum insured under the health insurance plan for the family is made available to all covered family members. However, before choosing an ideal family floater plan, you must consider several factors. 

Top 9 things to consider before choosing the health insurance plan for the family


1. Waiting period


A medical emergency can arrive at any time. It can be frustrating to be denied cashless treatment at a network hospital simply because you haven't completed the cooling period.  The waiting period or cooling period can be of different types: the initial waiting period, pre-existing disease waiting period, waiting period for specific illnesses, etc. Compare this period with other health insurance providers' before picking your insurer and choose the one with the shortest waiting period without compromising on other policy features.

2. Network hospital


Have you spent a significant amount of money on a family floater plan with multiple add-ons only to discover that your insurer does not provide a cashless option in your city? Frustrating, isn't it? To avoid this situation, check the list of network hospitals in your city provided by your insurer. Choose the insurer with an expansive list of network hospitals in their bucket.

3. Claim settlement ratio


Compare the claim settlement ratio. A claim settlement ratio will tell you how many claims were settled by an insurance company against the ones they received. Choose the health insurance provider with a higher claim settlement ratio and a quicker turnaround time for claim settlement.

4. Adequate sum insured


When choosing the health insurance plan for the family, first decide on the total number of members to be covered under the plan. After that, based on each member's age and medical history, assess their anticipated medical costs and select an adequate sum insured accordingly. However, a higher sum insured means a higher policy premium. So if you can't afford to pay higher premiums, explore super top-up policies.

5. Sub-limits


Almost every health insurance plan for the family comes with a sub-limit. The sub-limit reduces the claim amount proportionally. Some of the common expenses on which insurer caps a limit are as follows:
  • Room rent
  • OPD expenses
  • Organ donor expenses
  • Domiciliary treatments
  • Alternative medical treatment that is taken under Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Unani, and Siddha. 


When choosing the ideal family floater plan, check the applicable sub-limits. Remember that plans with no sub-limits have a higher policy premium.

6. Maximum renewal age


There are various insurance providers whose family floater plan offers a renewal option until the oldest member of the family attains the age of 60 or 65 years. However, for uninterrupted coverage, you should buy a health insurance plan for the family with an insurer that offers a lifelong policy renewal option.  

7. Policy exclusions 


Before selecting the ideal health insurance plan for the family, check what is excluded from the policy coverage. Compare the inclusions and exclusions of the plan with various insurers and then arrive at any decision. 

8. Claim settlement process 


Before buying your family floater policy, understand your insurer's reimbursement and cashless claim settlement procedure. Choose a policy that processes your claim smoothly. 

9. Arogya Sanjeevani policy 


If you are still undecided, to start with, you can go for the Arogya Sanjeevani policy. It'll help you get basic coverage by covering the standard health needs of your family under the family floater plan. However, it may be inadequate to cover your family members considering the maximum coverage that you can opt for is only ₹5 lakh under the Arogya Sanjeevani policy.

Now that you know the key factors to consider, contemplate and compare family floater plans offered by various insurers. Make sure that the family floater health insurance plan you opt for covers all of your medical needs and provides you and your family with access to high-quality medical care facilities across India.


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