Family Floater Or Individual Health Insurance Plan

Health insurance shouldn't be ignored if you don't wish to worry about arranging finances during medical treatments. With rising medical costs, taking a policy to cover such expenses has become a necessity.

While getting a health insurance plan, you must choose between opting for an individual or a family plan.

In this blog, we'll cover some significant differences between the two to help you make a wise decision.

Meaning

In individual health insurance policy each person in the family has an individual sum assured. ?

Family floater sum assured covers all family members for the entire policy. This means that both the insurance premium paid and the sum insured can be shared among family members.

Health insurance companies consider family as self, spouse, children or parents for issuing floater health insurance policies.

Suitability

An individual health insurance plan is suitable for individuals with specific health needs. It is best suited for senior citizens.

However, a family plan may be suitable for families with children. As the premium is charged on the eldest age of the family member it is better to have a separate individual or floater policy for parents.

Advantages

The major advantage of choosing an individual plan is getting a specific sum insured as per your personal needs.

The major advantage of family floater plans is that the premium is more affordable than that of an individual one and the sum assured can be shared among the family members.

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Limitations

High individual premiums and limited sum assured are the major limitations of individual health insurance plans.

Family floater policy’s premium is calculated on the eldest age of the family member so as the age increases there can be disproportionate rise in premium for younger members of the family. There is a higher probability of raising a claim under floater plans. As a result, no-claim bonus advantage can be sub optimal. In simple words, if any of your family members claims during a year, no claim bonus would not be applicable/reduce depending upon the policy.

Also, if your children reach a certain age (18-25 years, depending on the type of policy), they would need to take a new policy.

Which one should you take?

No single policy is perfect for all individuals or families. Many factors affect your choice besides the premium to be paid and the risk covered.

But if you can afford to take individual health insurance policies, you must go for them. These policies not only ensure that your specific health needs are met but also benefit you from a no-claim bonus. NCB means you would have more coverage or pay lesser premiums if you don't claim benefits during a policy year.

Today family floater policies are available upto 1 crore of sum assured which may not be possible in an individual policy. So families seeking higher sum assured can opt for family floater policies.

No one policy is best for everyone. Whether you take an individual or family health insurance plan, make sure to check its pros and cons.

Also, do consider factors like health conditions/risk, family members, age, coverage of the policy, etc., before purchasing a policy.

Any policy that caters to your needs is best for you. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to have comprehensive health insurance cover for your family.