What Type of Cover Should a Senior Citizen Buy?

The sight of your parents turning old is definitely unpleasant for all of us as with age certain complications arise. In fact, with increasing age, the chances of health problems only increase and become more complicated. The chances of health problems during old age become so common that all the health insurance companies set higher health insurance premiums for senior citizens. Moreover, the healthcare cost for senior citizens is so high that paying for them during medical emergencies can sometimes become inconvenient. So, it is important to include adequate coverage for your senior citizen health insurance plan in order to get the right coverage. So, let us discuss the type of cover a senior citizen should buy. 

What is a Senior Citizen Health Insurance Plan?

As the name suggests, a senior citizen health insurance plan provides coverage for the medical expenses incurred by senior citizens. These plans are specially designed for senior citizens who are above the age of 60 years. However, there are certain factors that you should keep in mind while buying senior citizen health insurance plans such as the following:

• Check for the Benefits: First and foremost, you need to check on the benefits offered under your senior citizen health insurance plans. You need to check whether your health insurance plan offers critical illness coverage as the treatment cost of critical illnesses like cancer, or kidney failure is extremely high and may burn a deep hole in your pocket. 

• Check the Waiting Period: A waiting period in a health insurance plan means the time period for which you need to wait to avail the benefits of the health insurance plan that covers pre-existing diseases. Pre-existing diseases are those that the policyholder has been suffering from before buying the health insurance plan. This will give clarity as to when you can start getting coverage for pre-existing diseases.

• Buy Health Insurance Plans With Higher Sum Insured: It is important that you keep the sum insured in mind before buying a health insurance plan. Ideally, you should choose to buy a health insurance plan which has a higher sum insured so that you can get greater coverage. However, make sure to check the premium before investing in any particular health insurance plan so that you do not end up paying higher premiums.

• Check For the Network Hospitals: Network hospitals are those where policyholders can avail cashless hospitalisation without having to spend anything from their pocket. The higher the number of network hospitals, the higher more beneficial will it be for policyholders to get cashless treatment. With the availability of network hospitals, policyholders can get quality treatment without worrying about hefty medical expenses. 

• Claim Settlement Ratio: The higher the claim settlement ratio, the better will be for you as a policyholder to get your health insurance claims settled. So, it is better to buy senior citizen health insurance plans with insurers having a high claim settlement ratio. 

Different Types Cover for Senior Citizen Plans

Ideally, senior citizen health insurance plans should have a cover with a higher sum insured. You should also buy a senior citizen health insurance plan with critical illness coverage. There should be coverage for AYUSH treatment, organ donor cover, daycare cover, and more so that you need not spend anything from your pocket. Furthermore, for even more extensive coverage, you can include add-ons to your senior citizen health insurance plan such as room rent waiver, hospital cash cover, personal accident cover, and more. You should also be wise in choosing add-ons as there is no point in buying unnecessary add-ons. For instance, a maternity add-on is not required for senior citizens. 

Take Away

Thus, in a nutshell, it can be said it is wise to buy senior citizen health insurance plans that offer adequate coverage. You can talk to us at InsuranceDekho to know more about senior citizen health insurance plans and which one you should buy. 

Also Read: 

List of Health Plans Offered By Royal Sundaram Health Insurance