FinVise India
Jul 26, 20194 min
We all wish to provide the best possible healthcare for our parents. Be
it consulting with the best doctors or getting the best treatment from the best
hospitals whenever the need arises. However, choosing the best health plan for
our beloved parents is a daunting task in itself.
Entering the golden phase of life, i.e., retirement is a blessing for
our parents. It is a phase when there is very little work and ample scope for
enjoyment with their children, grand-children, friends or relatives. But even
as they relax, there are chances for a host of health problems to arise. You
might have already started noticing such health issues despite their best
attempts to hide them from you.
To provide the best possible healthcare facilities to your parents, it
is essential to ensure that there is no shortfall of funds when the time comes.
The best and safest way to have quality health care for our parents is to have
an adequate health insurance plan for them. But choosing a good health
insurance plan from the plethora of options available in the market requires
proper research.
Here are some steps to help you choose the right policy.
Have parents’ health history handy
The primary reason for undertaking this step is to be sure that when a
claim arises, it would be honoured by the insurance company. Under a senior
citizen health insurance plan, 99.99 per cent of the problems related to buying
and claims arise due to the medical history of parents. Medical History means
any case of an ongoing health issue; it includes symptoms and diseases that are
not formally diagnosed.
An ideal way of being sure about our parents’ medical history is to tag
along with them to the hospital or the doctor’s clinic they visit for their
routine health check-ups and ask questions to the doctor about their health.
Being completely aware of the health conditions of parents is the first step to
take before you start looking for a health insurance plan for them. Being
equipped with this information helps you look through plans that provide
relevant coverage and also be aware of what is excluded in them.
Read the terms and conditions
In order to filter out the right health insurance plan, you must
evaluate the policies available from various companies on a few parameters.
Some of these are room eligibility/rent limits, co-pay, surgery/treatment
limits. When you start looking for health insurance plans for your parents you
might come across plans that are surprisingly cheap. But the low price could be
accompanied with many toxic conditions that restrict the usage of the plan
significantly. Hence, you must read through the terms and conditions in the
policy wordings cautiously to know and be aware of any applicable limitations.
You must always prefer plans that do not have these restrictions.
However, in a scenario where you do not have a choice, it is recommended you
take whatever is available, instead of keeping your parents uncovered.
Moreover, if your parents are aged above 60 years, and suffer from any chronic
ailment or condition, insurers may either try to increase the premium or insert
additional terms & conditions in the plan. You must be aware of
these.
Decide on adequate sum insured
Ensure that you factor in medical inflation and the health of your
parents before you arrive at the sum insured. Remember, it is extremely
difficult to increase the sum insured of the health insurance plan of your
parents, once the policy is issued and comes into effect. Sum insured should be
chosen assuming an inflation rate of 8-10 per cent annually, till the time your
parents turn 80.
Buying a senior citizen health insurance plan
The process of buying a health insurance plan for your parents is very
simple and easy; you just have to fill in the proposal form with details of
your parents, their health status and history. Pay the applicable premium from
the various payment options available. The insurer will then analyse the
application and may call in to understand more about their health condition.
The insurer might also ask parents to undergo a medical check-up. On analysing
the information received, the insurer will either issue a policy, request for
an additional premium, or, in the worst case scenario, decline your
application.
Making claims
For making a claim from your parents’ health insurance plan, the same
standard process is followed as is applicable for all other health insurance
policies. Claims are paid according to the terms and conditions of the health
insurance plan bought. In order to ensure the claims experience is smooth,
especially in the case of planned hospitalization, it is always better to plan
in advance. You must intimate insurance companies and the network hospital in
advance to get cashless benefits at the required time. If there are multiple
policies from which you have a choice to make a claim from, always prefer
employer facilitated policies, against your own, personal insurance policies.
Having a health insurance plan for your senior citizen parents will save you from the horrors of running out of money or arranging funds when unplanned medical expenses strike.
For more details on Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Mutual Funds, Financial Planning & Personal Finance contact us at :Phone No. 9582250638
Email id: contact@finviseindia.com
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