Family Floater Health Insurance in India Even in this age and time, families and the support system is relevant to us Indians. I was speaking to a friend in the US, and he said that only we Indians who move from being dependant to our parents to being independent and then again being dependant to our children, in one lifecycle.
Like our peculiar culture, Health Insurance in India has a peculiar home-grown plan, the Family Floater health insurance plan. Family Floater as the name goes is an insurance policy covering an entire family in a single cover amount that amongst all the family members. If a family of 4 is covered under a floater of Rs. 5 Lakhs. All or any member can use the Rs. 5 Lakhs annual cover till the cover completely exhausts. Pros and Cons of Family Floater Health Insurance: Pro: The primary reasons why floaters are popular and are preferred over individual coverage plans are that they are more cost effective. The family floater concept works under a simple belief that though all members are under risk of hospitalization, not all members would fall ill in a given year. This results in unused individual cover for that member. Ă‚ At the same time, there could be one large hospitalization for one of the members. For instance, buying a Rs. 3 Lakh individual cover may not have effective long term use in a family of 4, as much as a Rs. 10 Lakh cover spread across all the 4 members. Another advantage of a family floater is that if there is any kind of limits or cappings on hospital room charges, you enjoy better benefits on a floater cover, than in the individual
plans. For instance a Rs 3 Lakh individual cover for a couple gives them a Rs. 3000 room in Oriental Individual Mediclaim for each of them. If they buy a Rs. 5 Lakh floater cover, their room eligibility moves up to Rs. 5000 per day per room. Same is the case Star Health and some other plans. Con: The major negative of a Floater is the risk of one of the members swiping out the entire cover, leaving the others uncovered. (However, this issue has been addressed through restore/recharge plans discussed below) Types of Family Floaters: Extended Family Covers: Most of the family floater Insurance plan covers only Self, Spouse and Kids, but there are some special plans which cover more members. Oriental Happy Family Floater provides for covering Parents and Parents-in-Law, Individual/Floater Combination: Here each family member has an individual cover, and a separate floater is available for all members covered in the plan. This plan ensures that every member is insulated with an individual cover, at the same time in times of need have the option of dipping into the family pool too. Restore/Recharge Options: As mentioned earlier, floaters have a drawback, where one member or one event can completely wipe out the cover for the remaining members. Restore or Recharge feature provides an excellent feature, where if the health insurance cover exhausts during a particular year, and there is another treatment required in the same year which is unrelated to the earlier claims, the plan provides 100% additional coverage. [Source: http://www.onemint.com/2013/01/14/family-floater-health-insurance-in-india/]