Which is best, family floater or individual insurance?
Posted on: 17/Apr/2014 5:23:04 PM
In a recent discussion with the chief executive and MD of Cigna TTV health insurance, Sandeep Patel, he said about the immense response for ProHealth, a recent launch of the company. He said the company had individual and family floater plans getting sold in equal numbers. However, it is expected that retail customers would be more inclined towards the latter. This is ultimately because family health cover plans are cheaper when compared to individual ones. Besides, family floater plans avail increased coverage too.
According to experts, in the year 2013, there is a 14 per cent increase in policy premium of public sector companies and 12 per cent in private sector companies. This percentage is expected to increase furthermore.
Speaking to the head of ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Sanjay Datta, he said the company is expecting increase in demand for family floaters more than individual health insurance plans. This is because the policyholders find family floaters beneficial as they give higher coverage with lesser premium than the individual ones.
Tips to decide between family floater and individual plans:
Sanjay Datta recommends family floater plans for the obvious reason of higher coverage at low cost. Here, family is inclusive of parents and children. Usually, siblings of parents will not be included in the insurance policy.
The premium amount for such plans is fixed according to the age of eldest family member. If the eldest family member of any insuring family is between 26 and 40, they will have to pay a sum of Rs 10,773 towards family floater plan with Bajaj Allianz’s insurance scheme.
In general, the maximum that can be paid as premium is Rs 10 lakh for such family floaters. Star health and United India are the two companies availing such high premium insurance schemes. It is usually recommended for the families to choose this plan if the eldest person if of the age 45 at the maximum. This is in fact the best choice of insurance scheme for nuclear families. In case of extended families having senior citizens, it is recommended for them to choose both family floaters as well as individual plans as it helps covering everyone in the family – husband and wife, children, elderly individuals, etc.
