Family Health Insurance

Health Insurance is necessary for every individual keeping in mind the rising medical cost. Medical emergency can strike anyone, anytime and leave you devastated emotionally and financially. Though one cannot provide coverage for emotional loss, financial losses during medical emergency can certainly be covered with a medical insurance policy. rnFor individuals having family it is always advisable to buy family health insurance. This is because it is not only more cost effective than buying individual health insurance for all family members but also the members enjoy a larger coverage under a family health insurance policy. E.g. Arun is a 35 year old salaried individual having four members in his family which includes his two children. He buys Rs 2 lakh individual health insurance for each member of his family. One day his child falls sick and the hospital bills amount to Rs 3 lakh. In this case since the child is only covered for Rs 2 lakh under a health insurance policy, the remaining Rs 1 lakh has to be borne by Arun from his own pocket. Now in a similar scenario if Arun had a family health Insurance cover of Rs 4 lakh, his entire hospital expenses would be borne by the health insurance provider as each member is eligible to utilize the entire sum insured under family health insurance policy. A regular family health insurance policy provides coverage for up to 4 individuals in the family, excluding parents. For individuals willing to provide coverage to his/her parents need to buy a separate health insurance policy for them. To improve on such a scenario few health insurance providers in India have introduced medical policies which not only covers your family including parents but also your extended family consisting of in-laws and other relationships. Such comprehensive family health insurance policies are real boon for individuals willing to provide coverage to large number of family members. Like individual health insurance, a family health insurance policy also offers impressive tax benefits under sec 80 D of the IT Act. Almost all health insurance providers in India offer family health insurance policy. However, one should select policy suiting his/her requirements ideally. The policy which offers the most comprehensive and affordable coverage should be selected as your family health insurance policy.