It is rightly said, “Health is the real wealth”, and when it’s a matter of family health, nothing is more important. In this contemporary time of rapid development, the lifestyles of people have been most affected. Numerous medical conditions are developing day by day, and the treatment cost is very high, due to which many times we compromise on health. Health insurance is something that can help to address this concern of expensive medical bills. Both offline and online health insurance is available.

What if you can protect the health of your entire family under a single health insurance plan? It is the family health insurance that will help you to fulfil this need. If you are the head of the family and are concerned about the health of your family, then it becomes your duty to opt for family floater health insurance.

Firstly let’s understand what family health insurance is.

What is family health insurance?

A family health insurance plan is a kind of insurance plan that provides health insurance coverage to the entire family. Unlike individual health insurance, a family health insurance plan covers all the members of the family by paying a single premium for the full family. This suggests that the separate payment of premiums for individual family members is not needed. So one should always look for the best health insurance companies offering the best plans.

Advantages of family health insurance

• The entire family gets health insurance under a single insurance plan. So it saves you from buying separate health insurance plans for every family member. Remembering multiple premium dates in the case of individual insurance plans can be a tedious job in this time of busy schedule for anyone. A single-family plan will help solve this problem and make the process hassle-free process without much stress.
• This medical insurance policy includes the following services:
• Pre and post-hospitalization cost
• Ambulance expense
• Doctor consultation 
• Other medical costs that occur due to any critical illness and accidents
• Some of the best medical insurance policies also provide the facility of medical checkups for an entire family under a single insurance plan.
• It is affordable compared to the health plans purchased for individual family members.
• Further, suppose a single family member is not well; then the insurance coverage of the entire family is available to the sick member to get the best treatment.
• Also, the policy continues for the rest of the family members in case any of the family members die.
• Even if there is an addition in the family member, the new member can be easily added to the existing medical insurance plan.
• Tax benefits are also available under section 80D of the Income Tax Act. A tax deduction of Rs 25000 is available for yourself, and an additional deduction of Rs 30,000 is available in the case of parents in the family health insurance plan. Tax benefit gets doubled in case of senior citizen parents being covered under the insurance plan.
• Additional benefits like maternity coverage and some extra family discounts depending on the number of family members and their ages are available in family health insurance plans. Thus, family health insurance plans can be more feasible than individual plans for family members.

Features of family health insurance plan

When you buy family health insurance online or offline, you should be aware of the following features of the plan to avail the best insurance policy for your family:

• When choosing a family health insurance plan, it is very much important to check which all diseases are being covered under the plan and also check whether the maternity and daycare costs are covered or not.
• You should also look for coverage of pre and post-hospitalization expenses, ambulance cost, and medical expenses.
• According to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) rules and regulations, insurance companies should provide insurance coverage for up to the age of 65years. However, there are some most trusted best insurance providers that provide life cover to their customers. Thus, while purchasing a medical insurance policy, it becomes mandatory to check for the maximum age of renewability.

• Nowadays, medical costs are increasing day by day; one should ensure that the medical policy that they buy should help them keep pace with the rising medical costs as the best health insurance plan will provide you with an eventual increase in the amount insured with time.
• Leading health insurance providers have a dedicated team for the claim settlement process, which makes the processing time-saving and easy. So while purchasing a medical insurance plan, one should always look for a provider where the claim settlement is a hassle-free process.
• Facility for cashless hospitalization is also available under a family health insurance plan. So while selecting the health insurance plan, make sure you look for a medical insurance plan that facilitates cashless hospitalization.

Eligibility for the family health insurance plan

The eligibility criteria for a family health insurance plan are as below:

Exclusion 

• Children above 91days are not included in the plan.
• Children above 18 years of age are excluded from your family health insurance plan.
• Waiting periods are there in such plans, and during this time, pre-existing medical conditions are not included in the plans.

Inclusion 

• Mental health has been given importance in the plans, so the treatment costs for mental health problems are covered under the family health insurance plans.
• Yearly medical checkups are provided for all the family members covered in the plan. 
• Family health insurance plans in India also cover maternity benefits. The procedures that are included are termination, delivery, emergency c-section, infertility treatments, etc.

The current time has made us all aware of the fact that a medical emergency can hit anyone at any time. So to avoid the stress of managing financial resources to meet the expensive treatments at the time of a medical emergency, it has become mandatory to purchase a good health insurance plan for your family. Offline or online health insurance plans provide a financial cushion in times of unforeseen medical conditions, and the above information will help you buy the best health insurance plan for your loved ones.