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Whenever you are thinking of buying health insurance for yourself and your family, you have to take a look at options that will be beneficial for all members included. The primary reason you buy family health insurance is to ensure you give them the best medical facilities in times of need. If you are looking to buy insurance for your family there are 2 options – Family Floater Health Insurance and Individual Family Health Insurance. Family Floater Health insurance is perfect for smaller families or newly married couples. Under this plan, there is a fixed insured sum that is extended to the whole family. Irrespective of the number of members, the sum remains the same.

If the health insurance you buy falls short, you end up paying for your medical expenses from your pocket. Considering the rising health care costs, this could dent your savings or wipe them out. Although, family floater health insurance is the popular choice for insuring your family, if your parents are part of your family health insurance it could be detrimental.

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Reasons to not include parents in family floater health insurance

1. Parents need more medical attention – Advanced age often brings more complications and the need for medical attention is higher compared to younger people. This means your entire sum may be redirected towards one or two members and it may be insufficient for other members. There may be follow-up procedures and other complications that occur due to old age. This is why it is advisable to get separate health insurance for parents. It ensures you’re giving the necessary attention to the medical needs of your parents without compromising on the needs of the rest of the family.

2. If they get sick at the same time, coverage is not enough – If you have a family floater insurance policy, and more than a member gets seriously ill at the same time or even during the same policy period, it means the sum may get used up and leave nothing at all for the rest of the members. If you wish to accommodate the healthcare facilities in your insurance policy limit, you may end up compromising on medical care. Whereas, if you want only the best, then you may be stuck with hefty hospital bills.

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3. All the coverage may be directed towards parents – In case your parents have recurring problems, then the cost of those will use up the sum assured. The coverage can be increased but 2 people who need constant medical attention add a lot of stress to the total policy. Your parents may have different needs as compared to the rest of the family. If you purchase a separate policy, you may be able to customize it as per their needs by purchasing add-ons.

4. Premium will be higher – The premium of the family floater health insurance is decided on the age of the oldest member. The older the member, the higher the premium. This means you will end up paying more if the oldest member of your policy is 60 years old as opposed to when the oldest person is 30 when you’ll end up paying much less. This is another reason why you should buy a separate policy for your parents. Also, when the oldest member reaches the maximum limit, the family floater health insurance is terminated automatically, which causes you to lose all the bonuses gathered over the years.

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5. Cumulative bonus may be lost – If you do not place a claim for a year, then you are eligible for a No Claim Bonus which is a percentage of the assured sum that is carried over to the next year and the total assured sum increases. Since parents are more likely to use the medical facilities, the chances of gathering no claim bonuses are minimal. If the parents have a separate policy, only their NCB is affected.

6. Pre-existing diseases in parents can leave the whole family vulnerable – The older you get, the more illnesses you are vulnerable to. Pre-existing illnesses have a waiting period. The health insurance policy has a higher premium if there are pre-existing illnesses. Most pre-existing illnesses have a waiting period. If one member of the policy has an illness, then the whole family has to go through the waiting period and wait for the policy to become valid. In the interim, if one of the members falls ill, then you will have to bear all expenses as the family floater health insurance policy is not valid yet.

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If you include your parents in the family floater plan, you can experience the aforementioned problems. Instead of doing that, you can buy a policy for them separately which will comfortably take care of medical expenses without burdening you and other family members as well. It is more economical in the long run and can open up more avenues in terms of medical options as well.