8 Reasons To Choose Health Insurance Plans For Family Over Individual Plans

Health insurance is available in many varieties. Choosing the right type of plan is a key component as it ensures that your health cover will work for you. Among the different types of health plans, we have the family floater health plans and individual health plans. The individual health plans are well suited for those who are single or who require special medical covers. Family floater health plans can be shared by all the members of a family. And since health insurance is something that every individual needs, it makes a lot of sense to buy the family health plans for the members of the same family rather than buying individual plans for each of them. Take a look at this article to know why it makes more sense to choose health insurance plans for the family over individual plans.

1. Cover for everyone –
   The biggest advantage is that you get a health insurance cover for all the members of your family. Apart from yourself, your spouse and your kids, you can also include your parents, parents-in-law and even siblings in some cases. This proves to be very handy as you get to keep the health of all your loved ones secured all at the same time. Everyone doesn’t need hospitalisation every year. Hence a floater coverage works well, especially for a larger family.
2. Wide range of covers –
   You get a wide range of covers in a family floater health insurance policy. From in-patient care to post-hospital expenses to domiciliary care, it is indeed a comprehensive and well-rounded medical cover. A big advantage is that all these covers are available for all the members of the family, so everyone stays assured of getting the best health care facilities if there is a requirement.
3. Single premium payment –
   Another big advantage is that you need to pay only one single premium for the entire cover. This enables you to keep the health of your loved ones covered under the same policy with just one premium. If there are multiple premiums to pay for multiple plans, you may miss or forget to pay one or two premiums and that can lead to someone losing their health cover. But when you pay the single premium and keep the cover active, everyone remains protected without fail.
4. Cashless hospitalisation –
   Almost every family health insurance plan from all of the leading health insurance companies in India have the cashless hospitalisation facility. This makes it easy for you to get yourself and your loved ones treated at the best of hospitals without having to worry about monetary problems when there is a need.
5. Very economic –
   As stated, a particular family member may need a high sum insured to treat a specific health condition. Since a large sum insured is available on the family health plans, you can offer this cover to your loved one at a very economical rate. Getting an individual health plan with such a large cover may prove to be a lot more expensive, especially for a larger family size.
6. Tax benefit –
   There are many benefits you get when you buy health insurance. A tax benefit is one of them. You get a tax deduction upto INR 25,000 on the health insurance premium that you pay for yourself, spouse and children under section 80D of the Income Tax Act and an additional INR 25,000 for the premium you pay for your parents. If your parents are more than 60 years of age, then you get an additional INR 25,000 tax deduction. This proves to be very beneficial in the overall tax implication.
7. Restoration benefit –
   Many family health insurance plans are available with the restoration benefit. This means you can opt to have the entire value of the sum insured restored if a claim is made during the policy period. For example, your father is hospitalised and the bill comes to INR 2 lakhs. The total sum insured of the family floater health plan is INR 3 lakhs. So rather than being left with just INR 1 lakh, the sum insured will get restored and the cover will again become INR 3 lakhs and you can make a claim of up to INR 3 lakhs again without paying anything extra.
8. Availability of higher sum insured –
   When you have a family floater health plan, the coverage is shared by all the members of the family. If a particular family member falls ill and requires extensive medical attention, the entire sum insured can be used up by him. This is a very high amount, considering it was originally meant for, say, four family members. However, if the same person was insured under an individual plan, the coverage amount would be lower. Also, the covers taken for the other family members would go waste, as they would not require it. So the shared sum insured proves to be very handy when one member needs more medical care and another requires less of it.

The final word

Keeping all the points in mind, it can safely be said that buying a family health plan indeed makes a lot of sense. You can get the best cover at the best price and with that, you can keep all your loved ones protected. Health insurance is a very vital requirement and everyone needs it. So invest wisely in a good family health insurance policy and stay healthy and happy.