What is Family Health Insurance?

Family health insurance is a health policy that covers your entire family under one premium and one policy. It works on the floater basis, means the total sum insured is shared among all insured members. For example, if you buy a 10 lakh sum insured under family health insurance plan, that amount can be used by any family member in case of hospitalization. These family health insurance plans are ideal for young families, couples with children, or people looking for a plan for multiple members.

Benefits of Family Health Insurance

Choosing the best family health insurance plans provides lots of benefits that ensure financial safety and quality treatment for your loved ones.

• Single Premium for All Family Members - Instead of paying multiple premiums for every member of family, a family health insurance plan requires only one premium for all members on yearly basis.
• High sum insured at Low Cost - Family health insurance cost is much lower compared to buying individual policies for each members in the family.
• Cashless Treatment at Network Hospital - Family members can avail treatment at cashless network hospitals anytime, making health emergencies easier to manage.
• Coverage for Children & Spouse - Most health insurance plans for family include newborns, dependent children, and spouse under one umbrella.
• Free Health Check-ups - Many insurers offer annual health check-ups for family members.
• Tax Benefits - Premium paid for a family health insurance policy is eligible for tax deduction under Section 80D.
• Easy Claims with Family Health Insurance TPA - A dedicated TPA (Third Party Administrator) helps process claims faster and more smoothly.

What Are The Eligibility Criteria For Family Health Insurance?

Eligibility criteria for family health plans differ by insurer, but commonly include:

• Age Criteria – Adults can take policy from 18 to 65 years, and Children can be covered 90 days to maximum up to 30 years with their parents. And there is lots of plan in the market that cover newborns from day one.
• Family Members Included - Most family health plan includes Self, Spouse, Dependent children, Dependent parents.
•  Medical History - If any member has pre-existing diseases, a waiting period of 2 to 4 years may apply.

Inclusion of Family Health Insurance Plan

A family health plan provides wide ranging medical coverage for all family members under a single sum insured. Most family health insurance include several essential benefits, making them the family health insurance best option for long term protection. Family health insurance includes:

• Inpatient hospitalization expenses – Covers room rent, doctor fees, nurse charge and medicines when a member is hospitalized for 24 hours or more
• Pre & post hospitalization expenses – Diagnostic tests, consultations, and medicines before and after hospitalization are covered under the family health policy.
• Daycare treatments – surgeries like chemotherapy, cataract surgery, that do not require 24-hour hospitalization are included in most health plan family policies.
• Ambulance expenses – Road ambulance and air ambulance expense are covered in family health insurance plans up to the specified.
• Organ donor expenses – In a family health insurance plan, organ donor expenses are also covered, including all expenses related to the organ donation process while covering the expense for organ donor and receiver. 
• Domiciliary treatment – Expenses for treatments taken at home when hospitalization isn’t possible due to medical condition or lack of hospital beds.
• Annual health checkups – Many family health insurance policy options include free preventive check-ups every year. 
• Maternity & newborn cover – Some plans offer maternity expenses and newborn baby cover from day one. These type of benefits are comes with waiting period and waiting periods vary from plan to plan.
• No-claim bonus benefits – Your sum insured increases every claim-free year, maximum up to 100% of your base sum insured and even in cheap family insurance plans.
• AYUSH treatment cover – Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy are included in many family health plan insurance options.
• Tax benefits under Section 80D – Premiums paid for a floater health insurance plan are eligible for tax deductions, up to Rs. 25000 for self and Rs. 50000 for parents.
• Discounts on multi-year policies – Many insurers offer 5 to 15% discounts when you buy a best insurance policy for family for 2 or 3 years.
• Family discounts – When more than two members are covered under the same policy, insurers offers a discount of up to 32%. These discounts vary from plan to plan because every insurance company has its own discount structure.

Best Family Health Insurance Plans

Finding the best health insurance for family is important to protect your loved ones from unexpected hospitalization expenses. A good family health insurance policy ensures that every member of family gets quality treatment without financial stress. When choosing the best health insurance policy for family, look for benefits like maximum sum insured, maximum cashless hospitals in network, and no room-rent limits. Plans that offer OPD, preventive check-ups, and day-1 coverage for illnesses provide better long-term value. With rising medical expenses, selecting the best health insurance for family becomes even more important. A well-designed family health insurance policy keeps your family secure and financially prepared for any emergency. So here are some best family health insurance plans on that you can take a look:

Exclusions of Family Health Insurance Plans

• Disease related to lifestyle - In some health insurance policies, diseases caused by your lifestyle, such as liver cirrhosis, lung diseases, and drug-related diseases, may not be covered. It is rare for health insurance plans to cover these diseases, and the premiums they charge are often high.
• Cosmetic Surgeries - In most cases, health insurance policies do not cover cosmetic treatments and surgeries, with the exception of accident-related procedures.
• Drink and Drive - Any accident caused while drunk driving will lead to claim rejection, and it’s permanently excluded from your policy.
• Test for diagnostic purposes - Unless the test results are positive and require hospitalization, these tests are not covered by health insurance.
• Suicide attempt or self harm - self-harm or suicide attempts are not covered by health insurance plans.
• Permanent Exclusions - health insurance policy does not cover congenital diseases, HIV/AIDS, or injuries or damages caused by war or nuclear weapons.