Are cos ready to give senior citizens health insurance?

Are you planning to buy Health insurance and you are above 60yrs? Are agents not coming forward to offer you products? And, you are  still wanting to know more about comparisons? Indian market is currently abound with options on healthcare plans specifically designed for senior citizens and many insurance providers also offer family floater healthcare plans specifically designed for families consisting of senior citizens.

However, the options tend to limit down if the age of your age is more than 60. Also, while purchasing health insurance policy for yourself you might have to pay a higher premium depending upon on your age. The primary reason is the Age Vs Health risk metrics. As your age increases, the risk exposure of the insurance companies also rises. In order to maintain a balance, the firms have to insert some built-in buffers.

The good news is that many companies are now coming up with health insurance policy specifically designed for senior citizens. For example, Star Health Senior Citizen Red Carpet Plan, Bajaj Allianz Silver Health, etc.

The Star Health Senior Citizen Red Carpet policy covers people in the age group of 60-69 years. Although there is copayment of 50%, there are no medical tests required at the time of the payment of the policy. Similarly, Similarly, Bajaj Allianz Silver Plan covers people till the age group of 75 years and the policy can be renewed till 80 years. The Sum Insured options start from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5,00,000. Similarly, Oriental insurance’s plan called Hope states no upper age limit for health insurance and covers 11 specified critical illness diseases like Accidental Injury, Knee Replacement, Cardio Vascular Diseases, Chronic Renal Failure, Cancer, Hepato-Biliary Disorders, Chronic Obstructive Lung Diseases, etc.

As the market is abound with options it gets important to go through all the options and then zero down on one to buy the best health insurance policy for parents. Before you decide on purchasing a certain policy, we would recommend you scan all the possible options and decide on the one that is best healthcare policy suitable for you.

Yashish Dahiya, CEO, Policybazaar.com