Our parents, as they get older, need financial cover to fight ailments. Therefore, it is recommended to ensure our parents under the right medical insurance policy. Purchasing a medical policy for parents ensures that their medical expenses are efficiently taken care of. However, selecting the best medical insurance for parents is indeed a crucial responsibility. Below we have mentioned a few essential factors to be considered while purchasing a medical policy for parents.
Factors to Consider While Purchasing a Medical Insurance for Parents:
You need to be more cautious while choosing medical insurance for your parents. The medical requirements for senior citizens increase with age and a health policy that is optimum for you might not be an ideal one for your parents. Keeping this into consideration, we have explained a few pointers that can be considered while purchasing a health policy for parents.
Coverage:
The best health insurance for parents must go beyond just covering the hospitalization expenses. It should also extend the coverage to domiciliary hospitalization, dialysis, OPD, pre, and post-hospitalization, etc. All these facilities may not be the part of base medical policy and can be availed as an add-on cover.
Sum Insured:
The coverage amount is the second important factor to be considered while purchasing a medical insurance policy for parents. The sum insured chosen should always match the medical requirements of your parents. To do this, ideally, you can set the coverage amount based on your family’s medical history, age of your parents, fitness levels, etc. And, in case, you are residing in a metro city you can opt for a higher coverage amount because medical expenses are generally higher in metro cities.
Waiting period:
Medical policies come with the waiting period. However, the period for waiting depends on insurance companies. Therefore, purchase health insurance for your parents that offer a lesser waiting period.
Network Hospitals:
Your medical insurance for parents should offer easy access to cashless hospitals. Therefore, opt for a medical insurance company that has network hospitals near your parent’s residence. This will ensure speedy treatment in case of a medical emergency.
Why is Family Health Insurance Not Enough for your Parents?
If you want to introduce your elderly parents to your existing family medical insurance (with you as the eldest member), then, you are making a wrong judgment. Therefore, we recommended having a separate medical policy for parents. Some of the important reasons why you shouldn’t accommodate your parents to your existing medical policy are listed below:
- The premium amount of family health insurance is subject to the age of the eldest family member
- No Claim Bonus Could be Affected
- Pre-existing alignments will increase the premium amount for the cover availed by the whole family.
Therefore, it is obvious to buy separate medical insurance for parents, as including your parents is most likely to raise your premium amount. With the claim settlement ratio of 95.22%, Care Insurance offers a comprehensive medical insurance policy for parents designed to offer financial protection to your parents in case of a medical emergency.