Top Health Insurance Plans in India for parents / senior citizens
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With growing medical expenses year on year, it is important that you do plan for health insurance as part of your financial planning exercise. There are several ways to reduce insurance costs. While it is easy to get a medical insurance policy at young age, there are several restrictions and conditions to get health insurance for parents / senior citizens. What are the top health insurance plans in India for parents / senior citizens?
Why health insurance is important for our parents?
Thanks to medical advancement that average age of a person is increasing year on year. Health insurance is an option to avoid holes to our pocket else they can make our finances sick. Health insurance may not be costing much at young age, but it is very important once you reach the age of 60 due to various reasons like:
- Growing medical expenses year on year
- Decreasing or zero revenue for the senior citizens
- Surplus money reduces year on year to meet regular monthly expenses
- Unforscene expenses would wipe out savings kitty
Top health insurance plans in India for parents / senior citizens
Below are some of the best health insurance for parents / senior citizens.
- Star Health insurance company – Star Senior Citizen Red carpet plan
- Bajaj Alliance health insurance – Silver plan
- Apollo Munich insurance – Optima Senior
- Max Bupa insurance – Heartbeat plan
- National Insurance – Varishta healthcare plan
- United India insurance – Senior Citizen plan
- New India insurance – Senior Citizen medi claim policy
Let us look at the features of these top health insurance plans in India
Star Health insurance company – Star Senior Citizen Red carpet plan
- Entry of age: 60 to 75 years
- Renewals up to: Lifelong
- Pre-existing diseases coverage : from first year
- Sum assured: Rs 1 to Rs 5 lakhs
- Additional details: 1) 50% co-payment for pre-existing diseases 2) 30% co-payment for other illnesses
- Thought it looks like this is one of the best health insurance plan as it covers pre-exising diseases from first year itself, one need to keep in mind about 50% co-payment for pre-existing diseases.
- Website: URL details:
Bajaj Alliance health insurance – Silver plan
- Entry of age: 46 to 70 years
- Renewals up to: 75 years
- Pre-existing diseases coverage : After 1 year
- Sum assured: Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakhs
- Additional details: 1) 20% copayment on non-network hospital 2) Waiver of co-payment if we pay additional premiums
- Website: http://www.bajajallianz.com/Corp/health-insurance/silver-health.jsp
Apollo Munich – Optima Senior
- Entry of age: 61 years onwards
- Renewals up to: Lifelong
- Pre-existing diseases coverage : After 3 years
- Sum assured: Rs 1 Lakh to Rs 5 lakhs
- Additional details: 1) 15-30% based on room type 2) 30% co-payment based on specified diseases 3) Pre-existing diseases covered after 3 years 3) In case of no claim, a discount of 5% on subsequent premiums.
- Website: http://www.apollomunichinsurance.com/optima-senior.aspx
Max Bupa – Heartbeat plan
- Entry of age: 0 years and maximum no limit
- Renewals up to: Lifelong
- Pre-existing diseases coverage : After 4 years
- Sum assured: Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 3 lakhs
- Additional details: 20% of co-payment for insurers age > 65 years
- Website:http://www.maxbupa.com/productvariantpages/health-insurance-plan-HBIndividual.aspx
National Insurance – Varishta healthcare plan
- Entry of age: 60 to 80 years
- Renewals up to: 90 years
- Pre-existing diseases coverage : After 1 year
- Sum assured: Rs 1 Lakh (Hospitalization) to Rs 2 Lakhs (Critical illness)
- Additional details: 10% claim amount to be borne by the insurer
- This is one of the best health insurance plans in India as the co-payment is only 10%. The negative point is about low sum assured.
- Website:
United India insurance – Sr. Citizen Plan
- Entry of age: 61 to 80 years
- Renewals up to: Lifelong
- Sum assured: Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakhs
- Additional details: 20% claim to be borne by the insurer
- Website:
New India insurance – Sr. Citizen Medi claim policy
- Entry of age: 60 to 80 years
- Renewals up to: 90 years
- Pre-existing diseases coverage : After 18 months
- Sum assured: Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakhs
- Additional details: 10% extra on basic premium to cover BP and Diabetes
- This is one of the top health insurance plans in India as it covers BP and diabetes which have become part of every one’s life at the age of 50 itself. You need to pay additional 10% premium for this.
- Website: http://newindia.co.in/content.aspx?pageid=1179#a5
Quick comparison of top health insurance plans in India in one table:
Now though there are several good health insurance plans in India for parents, you would have been in dilemma which one to choose. There is no single policy which suits for everyone. It suites based on the requirement, budget and several other parameters.
How to choose best health insurance plans in India for your parents?
Here are few suggestions where you can take decision on choosing best medical insurance for your parents.
- Max renewal age: Choose medical insurance policy which offers max renewal age. When you choose such medical insurance policy, you need not worry about this year on year. You can keep renewing the policies to the maximum extent.
- Maximum coverage: Choose a best insurance for your parents which have maximum coverage within your budget. The coverage includes any critical illness coverage, pre-existing diseases. E.g. New India insurance plan of Sr. citizen’s plan covers diabetic also with additional premium.
- Go for Pre-existing diseases coverage with least period: Some of the medical insurance plans cover pre-existing diseases within 1 year. You would benefit more if you can opt for lesser waiting period for such coverage’s.
- Maximum sum assured: Many insurance companies are offering lower sum assured policies. Take a medical insurance policy with higher sum assured.
- Minimum special exclusions: Buy insurance policies with minimum special exclusions. Special exclusions are those where insurance companies exclude some diseases or impose special conditions.
- Minimum co-payment: Co-payment is the amount where insurer has to make the payment. You should go for insurance policy where you need to pay minimum or nil co-payment.
Conclusion: If you are looking for top health insurance plans in India for your parents, do not look for low insurance premium policies. Consider above suggestions and get the best health insurance within your budget.
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Suresh
Top Health Insurance Plans in India for parents / senior citizens
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thanks
me also have for my mother new india assurance with cover of 3,00000 and i pay 9500 per year.
i heard that nowadays casless are not claim in mumbai -is i right ?
and if any issurance policy will cover me ,wife ,2kids and parents
thanks and regards.
There is no such news that cashless facility is stopped in Mumbai. Pls recheck with customer care of insurance company. You can review new reliance health care insurance policy for your and your wife.
Hi Suresh,
Does it required to do a medical check-up before choosing the right policy?
Thanks a lot
Hi Soma, it depends upon the insurance company. Most of the insurance companies would make this as practice to have medical check-up done after 40 or 50 years
Thanks Suresh.
My father is 65yrs old and he is healthy. I have decided to go with National Insurance.
Could you please suggest some policy for my mother (55yrs) and Myself for 5lacks? Later I would like to add my family(after marriage) into this policy.
Note: I have already a helath policy from my company upto 1 lacks.
Thanks
Somu, recently Reliance launched a good health insurance plan. Why don’t you go thru this? The details is available in home page
hi,'
I am having Star health insurance.premium faliny optima for my parents is increasing year after year.
Is this a gud one.
Father's age is 55+ . diabetes patient
mother's age is 50+
some people suggested tht Claiming is a risk in star health insurance
please suggest
Kiran, While taking health insurance, you should not just look at the premium. You should look at other riders the health insurance is providing. You need to check the claims payment ratio (% age of claims paid by insurance company). It is very difficult to say whether it is risk to claim money from an insurance company. It depends on the claim you are putting up along with other details which you would have provided during applying the claim.
Dear Suresh,
Nice article. Probably you could have given the premium amounts as well for each company charging. Also, we have an impression that the public companies charge lesser premiums but services are bad, and private companies charges hefty premiums but with good services. Pls commets on my opinion.
Thanks
Ravi N
Ravi, my initial though was to include premiums. But premiums would vary for each and every lakh of insurance + additiona benefits on additional premiums + age factor. Hence with all such combination, deriving applicable healthcare premiums would not very tough and it can change any moment. Thanks for the feedback.
Very nice information Suresh…Thanks:)