How is Family Health Insurance Different from Individual Health Insurance?
While buying a health insurance policy, people may come across two types: individual and family health insurance plans. Among them, the former gives treatment coverage to a single person, whereas the latter extends this coverage to multiple members of the policyholders’ families. Individuals with dependent family members may face confusion about what they ought to choose among these policies. Here are the differences between these two insurance plans that can reduce their dilemma.
Differences between Family Floater and Individual Health Insurance Plans
The major dissimilarities between these two health insurance plans are detailed in the list below:
- Definition
As the name suggests, an individual health insurance policy gives medical expense coverage to a single person insured under the policy. However, in a family health insurance plan, policyholders can include multiple members under the ambit of a single policy. As a result, they do not need to pay separate premiums for all their near ones or dependent family members.
- Coverage
Policy providers extend the sum insured of an individual health insurance policy for bearing the cost of treatment of the insured person only. On the other hand, policyholders can claim this sum insured for covering treatment expenses of everyone included in a family floater plan. However, they cannot claim any coverage after the pre-set limit is exhausted.
- Suitability
The individual health insurance plan is suitable for large families or families with senior citizens. This is because, under these conditions, the premium amount and the chances of getting medical treatment become higher. Furthermore, when the sum insured limit is exhausted, policyholders cannot claim treatment coverage for the rest of the members. This is why a family health insurance plan can be a preferred option for small or nuclear families.
Now that individuals are aware of the basic differences between these two kinds of health insurance plans, they also need to know the benefits of these policies.
Benefits of Family Health Insurance Plan
Here are some major advantages of these family health insurance policies:
- Hassle-free management: Individuals do not need to track separate health insurance plans for all their family members. As a result, they can pay timely premiums and renew the coverage without any hassle.
- Single premium: Individuals need to pay a single premium on or before the due date against the health insurance coverage of all their family members. In fact, the premium amount also stays low compared to the cumulative expense of separate policies for all.
Benefits of Individual Health Insurance Plan
Now let us know some basic advantages that one gets by availing of the individual health insurance plan:
- High sum insured: Individuals can enjoy a large sum insured to cover their treatment cost. Unlike the family floater plan, the amount is not shared with other members.
- Add-on cover: Policyholders can increase their policy coverage by adding extra facilities such as maternity cover, cancer cover, critical illness covers, etc.
Getting health insurance for the family is a way of investing money for tax benefits as well. In conclusion, both the individual and family health insurance plans have special facilities or benefits. Therefore, individuals need to choose among these two only after deciding the coverage they need.