Family Health Insurance Vs Individual Health Insurance Plans

Health insurance has gained a lot of popularity lately. With the raising of wide variety of diseases and increasing rate of healthcare inflation, securing health has become all the more important. A good health insurance policy is an ultimate solution to safeguard yourself and your family from healthcare expenses. Though, increased awareness has made people realize the importance of health insurance, buying the right one as per individual’s healthcare need is a quite difficult task.

When you decide to buy a health insurance plan, insurers offer you plans in two variants – individual health insurance plan and family floater plan.

Let’s First Understand The Differences

Individual Health Insurance

Under individual health insurance plan, policy is issued in the name of an individual with a dedicated medical cover. Only the individual person insured can avail all the benefits offered under the plan. That means, a 4 member family needs to purchase 4 individual health insurance plans to secure healthcare needs of entire family.

Family Floater Health Insurance

Under family floater health plan, single insurance policy is issued to cover the entire family. There is no dedicated medical cover offered individually. Instead, the entire coverage can be utilized by any insured family member under the plan. For example, if a family of 5 members including husband, wife, child and elderly parents buys a family floater plan of Rs. 10 lac, then the limit can be utilized by any of them during the policy term.

However, both the plans are unique in their own way. There are merits and demerits in both the plans. Choosing the right one depends on the healthcare needs of the family or an individual.

Difference Between Family Floater and Individual Mediclaim or Health Insurance Plan

• Family floater health insurance plans are more cost effective in comparison to individual health plan. To cover every family member individually, total premium cost is more. Family health insurance can cover some immediate family members like husband, wife, children, parents, dependent siblings and parent in laws under one umbrella at relatively lower cost.
• As the family floater plan offers a benefit of sharing the medical cover, an insured family member can get considerably higher amount of health insurance claims than what he or she could get individually in a separate plan.
• Most of family floater policies do offer discounts on rate in comparison to individual health plans.
• Family floater plans are more hassle-free when it comes to tracking. Keeping tab on each and every individual plan is not so easy.
• For healthier families with no major medical history, family floater insurance plans can be a good cost-effective choice to stay comprehensively covered for health uncertainties.
• Individual health plans can be customized based on person’s individual healthcare needs. Coverage loaded with customized benefits will be dedicated to an individual. On the other hand, there are chances of limit getting exhausted if more than two family members utilize the benefits at the same time in a family floater plan.
• For families with elderly people with more of younger members, considering a combination of individual health insurance plans to elderly people and the family floater to cover the rest of the members makes sense. Remember, premium for family floater plans are determined on the basis of the age of senior most member in the plan.
• Renewal of individual plans are simpler than family floater plans. When the senior-most person in the floater plan reaches the maximum age, the policy cannot be renewed. Instead, a new plan has to be purchased.
• In family floater plan, there is no benefit of individual no claim bonus can be enjoyed. No claim bonuses get accumulated with each claim-free year and up to a maximum of 50% discount can be availed.

Conclusion

Before choosing any health insurance plan, it’s important to evaluate your healthcare needs and then look for the right product with features and benefits that you are looking for. It’s important to consider your and your family member’s age and medical history. It’s better to weigh the merits and demerits of both individual health plans and family floater health plans and opt for the right policy or a combination of policies depending on affordability and insurance needs.

Choose wisely!