Family floater health insurance plans: All you need to know

The need for a health insurance policy is indisputable. You need a health insurance cover to protect you and your family from the cost of sudden hospitalisation in case of an emergency. While getting a plan you need to decide whether you should go for an individual or a family floater plan. To help you decide, let’s first understand how both these plans work:

An individual health insurance plan is for one person only. Here the sum insured is dedicated to one person only. On the other hand family, floater policy covers all the members of the family under one health insurance policy instead of each person buying a policy individually. In case of a claim by one member, the sum assured available for the rest of the family members reduces accordingly. The policy is usually in the name of the oldest member of the family and includes newborns as well. Family floater policies are easy to manage as it covers all members under one policy and is much cheaper compared to all members buying individual policies of the same sum insured.

While buying a family floater policy is a popular choice, here are a few instances when you should not buy a floater policy:

Here’s when you should not buy

Old parents

If you have old parents it is better to buy a separate policy for them and a separate policy for yourself with your spouse and children. This will allow not only for better plan selection but also helps in keeping your premium cost down, as in the case of family floater policy the premium is charged based on the oldest member of the family. Moreover, the probability of getting sick increases with old age. By keeping the separate cover you can keep adequate coverage for your family.

Children near maximum allowable age

Children are allowed to be a member of a family floater policy only up to a certain age. It is generally between 18 years and 25 years for various insurers. After crossing the threshold age limit children are moved to a separate plan but they keep getting continuity benefits on the new plan. When the child crosses the maximum allowable age then all continuity benefits such as waiting periods do not start again while shifting to an individual plan from the same company.