Health insurance is a must for every individual in this age as treatment cost has gone much higher. Health insurance has mainly two options, and they are- individual plans and family floater. As the name shows in the individual plan, only one person is covered who is a policyholder. In the family floater, all the family members are included.
The individual plan
In an individual plan, the premium amount is decided from the sum assured and age of the individual policyholder. Hence, if the policyholder is young, he may have to pay a low premium. The sum assured offered to the individual is restricted to be used by him only in case of any medical treatment. However, in this plan, only one person is covered.
The family floater plan
In this plan, a particular sum assured is given to the whole family or the members covered. Usually, in this plan, parents and kids are covered. However, there are also plans where the grandparents, parents-in-law and brother or sister are also included. It depends on the service provider and plan. In this policy, the whole family is provided with a particular sum assured. In case the same is used by one member, other members may not have any benefit of it. In a situation where one member has got half of the sum assured,the other member can avail rest of the sum assured amount. So, in this plan the insurer is responsible for offering a definite amount of sum assured to the policy holders.
Which plan is better?
It is challenging to decide which plan is better as every family has different needs. In case a family has senior members, it is better to go for the Individual Plans as the cost of the premium is decided as per the age and factors related to the senior-most members. If the senior member has crossed the maximum age limit of the insurance plan, the renewability of the insurance plan also gets lapsed. In case of a young family, it is better to go for the floater policy as they would not go for a lot of claims every year. In such cases, even the insurance companies offer attractive discounts on the policies.
A family with senior members may also go for a combination of floater and individual plans where a few members can be covered under the floater policy, particularly who are comparatively of young age. In contrast, others can go for an individual policy where the benefit of an individual plan can be availed.
Premium and other factors should also be considered
In case of a floater policy, the premium may be low or high as well. It depends on the health condition of the senior-most member of the family. If the senior member is in good health and he/she is not suffering from any major illness, the premium might not go on the higher side.
On the other hand, if the policyholder is of young age and makes no claim, he may get the policy at a low cost and also avail the benefit of no claim bonus.Coverage is another factor that affects the premium amount. In the case of the floater policy, the coverage may be given to all the members. Even if there is one claim made and sum assured is left, another member can still have the benefit of claim to the extent of available sum assured which is not the case with the individual policy.
