Which one is better? Individual plan or family floater or having both.

1. If the family includes your wife & children then family floater is the right choice. But never include parents or in laws in your family. Take separate individual or floater for them.
2. If you are okay with paying premium for two policies then yes you can take 2 insurances. But the goal here should be to cover more clauses / areas instead of a bigger sum insured. If you just want a bigger sum insured then rather buy a super top up along with one individual / floater policy.

Hope this helps.

Dear Akash ,

You are covered in two plans one is a family floater and another one is individual plan. Family floater can be used by anyone in the family. However, in individual you will be covered only.

Family floater plans are relatively cheaper than seperate individual policies. I would suggest to keep your family floater and take a super top up on floater basis which will provide additional sum insured for the whole family rather than only you and it might also be more economical than a family floater + Individual.

However , if you have an individual plan which is running from a quite good period (More than 4 years) and you also have a pre existing condition and the family floater policy is relatively new than I would suggest you to hold your individual plan because it is providing you cover for your pre-existing condition.

Regards

Nimesh

I understand your case as follows –

You are insured under a family floater plan along with your parents. This policy must have been started by your parents. Since you have mentioned that it’s an 18 year old policy, I will safely assume that this must be administered by a PSU Insurer.

Additionally, you have recently taken an individual health insurance scheme for yourself.  

Provided my above understanding is correct, I will advise you as follows –

1)     Do not stop your parents’ family health insurance scheme. Since it’s a very old contract, all waiting periods must have been served and your Insurer will view your case favorably in case of a claim.

2)     Seek to enhance the total Sum Insured of your parents by way of a super top-up. Keep the deductible in your super-top up a little less than the Sum Insured of your family floater plan (about 60 to 75% of family floater SI). This is to account for any deductions that your Insurer may apply while settling a claim in the family floater plan. Deductions could be on account of room rent limits and/or disease wise sub-limits.

3)     If you are employed and have a Group Health Insurance provided by your Company, you can safely exit from your parents’ family floater plan now as your GHI will most likely cover all claims from day 1. Some money that you will save here can be used to buy your parents’ super top up policy.

4)     If you are not employed or don’t have any Group Cover run by your Company, continue in your parent’s family floater plan for 2 more years. Most standard exclusions in your individual scheme will start to be covered after 2 years.

5)     If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you can also opt to continue in the family floater plan for 3 or 4 years (depending on the waiting period for PED in your individual plan).

Steps 4 and 5 depend on the maximum age upto which your family floater plan allows insurance of financially independent children. So check this in your policy papers.

Best Wishes,