Health insurance now covers LGBTQ partners, dependent relatives under one plan - check full list

Insured can now extend coverage under single health plan

Health insurance plans are now extending flexibility for insured to add other kinds of relationships like in-laws, dependents, niece and nephews, and even include same sex partners, among others under a single policy. This benefit is extended for individual, multi-individual (relatives other than immediate family members), and family floater health insurance plans.

However, relationships that are covered vary among health policies offered by insurance companies. Also, depending on products, limits can be capped in the number of adults that can be added in a single policy. Insurance analysts advise insured to carefully go through policy wordings that mentions all kinds of relationships that are covered. Remember, premiums are calculated accordingly.

It’s likely that addition of new relationships will be allowed only during the renewal time, or where premium has already been paid in lump-sum at the time of applying the policy. The monthly health policies may consider policyholders to immediately add a new member, a relationship that wasn’t available earlier.

Insurers calculate premiums for plans after taking into consideration factors like sum-insured amount, tenure, ages of the eldest member to the youngest, pre-existing, and life-style diseases, as well as locations you live in tier-1 or other cities, to cite an example. Coverage benefits, or inclusions, and exclusions are offered dedicatedly for members in such policies.

Here, we assess health insurance products picked by Policybazaar on the types of relationships covered under individual, multi-individual, and family floater plans.

Policybazaar selects four health insurance plans that have extended coverage to 10-12 relationships. Comparatively, each plan differs as per the type of relationships the main applicant has with them.

For instance, ActivOne Nxt and Optima Secure don’t allow dependents under their family floater plan. Similarly, Elevate doesn’t allow nephew, niece, and live-in partner. MediCare Select health insurance, on the other hand, excludes in-laws and nephews.

"With these new health plans, some new relationships can be added, which were not allowed earlier. The main applicant can be a proposer for relatives they want to avail them of health insurance coverage benefits," said Siddharth Singhal, Head of Health Insurance, Policybazaar.

Remember, health policies usually come with co-payment, wherein, an insured has to pay a certain payment upfront (10-20 percent, or more) of the hospitalization cost and the remaining is borne by insurers. There are tax benefits, which insured can use to claim deductions up to Rs 25,000, and up to Rs 50,000 for senior citizens, under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act.