Your Guide to Buy a Child Health Insurance Plan in India

So, when it comes to covering your child with health insurance, you can either opt for a child health insurance plan or add the child's name to your family floater health insurance plan. Let's understand how these plans work:

1. Individual Child Health Insurance Plan:

Similar to an individual health insurance policy, you can buy a separate individual child health insurance policy for your child. While buying an individual health insurance plan for each family member could be expensive, it ensures your child is covered with a separate sum insured. Buying this type of plan makes sense when the child needs frequent healthcare, or adding him/her into a family plan can increase the premium substantially due to his/her pre-existing conditions.

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2. Family Floater Health Insurance Plan:

When parents have a joint health insurance plan or family floater health insurance plan, the first thing they consider when covering their child with health insurance is adding him/her to their family floater plan. Since a single policy provides coverage to all family members, the premium of the policy is substantially lower compared to buying individual health insurance plans for each member. However, the sum insured is distributed to all the members. So, if one of the family members has utilised the entire sum insured, the other members cannot benefit from the policy.

Apart from these two types of policies, salaried individuals can also add their child to their corporate health insurance plan, provided the employer offers coverage to the spouse and children. However, we are not considering corporate health insurance plans because it is not advisable to be dependent upon these plans. The employer can change the terms and conditions of the plan anytime or may decide to stop providing the facility. Not having sufficient health insurance coverage can deprive you of quality medical treatment.

Here are a few things you should consider when buying a health insurance plan:

1. Age of the child:

When covering your child with a health insurance plan, the most crucial factor you should consider is age.

• Newborn: Many health insurance policies provide coverage to children after 90 days of their birth, and some policies may have a longer waiting period than this. Hence, if you want to cover a newborn baby, you should look for a plan with maternity cover or buy a separate maternity add-on with your health insurance plan.

• Childhood to teenage years: For children up to their teenage years, you can add them to a family floater health insurance plan or buy separate individual health insurance as per their health requirements. If the child does not have any specific requirements, it is advisable to add them to your family floater health insurance plan as it can save a considerable amount on the premium.

• Young adults: Family floater health insurance plans typically provide coverage to children up to 25 years. As the children complete their education and start paying their bills, it makes sense to have their own health insurance coverage.

2. Wide Coverage:

The coverage of a health insurance policy is the treatments and situations covered under the policy. You should make sure that all the primary and potentially required treatments and situations are covered under the child health insurance plan. The wider insurance coverage will ensure you get financial support for most illnesses.

3. Sufficient Sum Insured:

The sum insured is the maximum amount you can claim with your health insurance plan. Many times people opt for a policy with a lower premium that might not offer a sufficient sum insured. This does not serve the purpose of having health insurance as, in the end, you will have to pay the additional medical expenses from your pocket. Hence, it is important to make sure your child has a sufficient sum insured for all their healthcare needs.

4. Other Benefits:

Not all insurance companies offer the same benefits under a health insurance policy. Hence, you should compare the various benefits offered, such as ambulance charges, the cap on the room rent, daycare treatments, critical illnesses, a list of inclusions, etc., and choose the right plan that matches your child's requirements.

5. Newborn or post-natal care:

While the maternity plan covers the delivery cost, there could be many more expenses after the child is born, such as inoculation, vaccinations, etc. Therefore, it makes sense to buy a maternity plan or a maternity add-on cover to make sure all these expenses are covered under the insurance.

6. Network Hospitals:

Make sure your preferred hospitals are on the insurer's network hospitals list. This will help you to avail of the cashless claim facility. Plus, you will not have to worry about arranging money to cover medical expenses in a stressful situation.

7. Policy Premium:

You should compare and check the premium you are paying against the sum insured and the benefits offered. You can easily check the premiums of various health insurance policies by using premium calculators available on the official websites of the insurers. As discussed earlier, adding your child to a family floater health insurance plan is a cost-effective way to cover them under health insurance.

8. Claim Settlement:

The claim settlement process should be quick and easy. And the insurance company should have prompt customer service. The claim settlement ratio represents the number of claims successfully settled against the number of claims filed in a year. A high claim settlement ratio means the chances of the settlement of your claim are high.

9. Company Reputation:

Apart from the claim settlement ratio, you should also consider the company's goodwill, the number of years it is in the business, the solvency ratio that defines the company's ability to pay its short-term and long-term liabilities, and the number of policies issued in a year.

10. Convenience:

Ensure that buying and renewing your health insurance policy can be done smoothly. Many insurers offer online purchase and renewal of the policies, which saves a lot of your time and money. Also, the flexibility to make changes to the existing policy is another feature that can be of great convenience.

11. Policy exclusions, exemptions, and terms and conditions:

Before buying the health insurance policy, ensure you thoroughly read the list of exclusions, policy exemptions, and terms and conditions of the policy. Reading all the policy documents beforehand will help avoid any future disputes.

To conclude:

This article explains everything you must know before buying a health insurance policy for your child or adding him/her to your family floater health insurance plan. Make sure you consider the points suggested before making a purchase decision so that you choose the best-suited child health insurance policy. Ensure you understand the plans, compare the plan benefits and premiums, and read all the policy documents carefully. This will help you make an informed decision.

Warm Regards,
Ketki Jadhav
Content Writer