Medical emergencies can come unannounced. With rising costs of medical treatments in the country, managing such emergencies can dent your finances. In India, nuclear families have been gaining prominence over the decades. Typically, an Indian household consists of a working couple, parents, and children – around four to six people. They need regular health check-ups, treatment for sickness, and financial strength to manage medical emergencies. A Family Health Insurance policy offers financial coverage for such emergencies.

Why Health Insurance is Important for Your Family?

A family has members from different age groups and health conditions. While most people try to eat nutritious food and exercise to stay healthy, illnesses and diseases can never be completely avoided. With high medical inflation, the treatment costs can dent your finances. If hospitalisation is involved in the treatment process, then it can become extremely difficult to manage medical expenses.

The younger generation is increasingly living an unhealthy lifestyle, exposing them to a range of lifestyle-related diseases with expensive treatments. Also, if you are living with your parents, you need to be prepared for medical costs that tend to be synonymous with old age.

When you opt for a family care health insurance plan, the insurer offers coverage for all such medical expenses. Therefore, you can focus on the treatment without worrying about the costs. The policyholder can also opt for a critical illness add-on cover to tackle the medical expenses in case they are diagnosed with a critical illness. Health insurance with cancer cover, for example, is one of the crucial critical illness covers that one needs to have.

How Health Insurance Can Protect Your Family?

There are many insurers offering health insurance plans for your family. Contrary to the popular misconception that medical insurance plans offer coverage only for surgeries and severe diseases, health insurance plans offer extensive coverage including:

• In-patient hospitalisation charges. These include room rent, nursing charges, diagnostic tests, ICU charges, etc.
• Charges for the operation theatre
• Pre and Post-hospitalization costs
• Emergency ambulance costs
• Consultation fees charged by doctors and specialists
• Daycare procedures
• Medical check-ups
• Ayurveda, Unani, Sidha, or Homoeopathy treatment expenses

What is Family Health Insurance?

A family health insurance plan offers coverage to all family members under one policy. Insurance companies define family as your spouse, children, and parents. Some insurers also allow you to include your siblings and in-laws in the policy.

When you opt for a family health insurance policy, the insurer offers a high sum assured for all members of the family. This can be used by one or many members as needed.

Why Do You Need a Family Health Insurance Plan?

Family medical insurance plans offer a range of benefits including:

• Financial protection from your complete family from medical expenses
• They offer coverage for a range of costs like in-patient hospitalisation, pre and post-hospitalization expenses, ambulance charges, diagnostic tests, etc.
• Many insurers also offer free annual medical check-ups for all family members
• You don’t have to worry about managing multiple individual medical insurance plans for family members
• The premium amount of a health insurance family cover is lower than the cumulative premium of individual medical insurance policies
• Every family member gets a higher coverage amount compared to individual policies

You can also avail of tax benefits under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act. You can also get additional tax benefits if you pay a premium for a health insurance policy for your senior citizen parents.

Conclusion

The cost of a family health insurance plan depends largely on the type of coverage opted for, as well as the amount of sum assured. No matter how much it costs, it is never more important than your family’s health. It is a hassle-free way of ensuring financial protection for your family from medical emergencies. However, before you buy one, make sure that you understand the medical requirements of all family members and choose a plan that offers adequate coverage.