Health insurance for senior citizens is a type of insurance policy specifically designed to cater to the healthcare needs of elderly individuals, typically aged 60 or older. These insurance plans offer coverage for various medical expenses that seniors may encounter, such as hospitalization, surgeries, medications, diagnostic tests, and sometimes even outpatient services.
Health Insurance for Senior Citizens often comes with specific features that cater to the health concerns more common in older age groups, such as coverage for pre-existing conditions, higher sum insured options, and provisions for domiciliary treatments or home healthcare services.
Coverage and premiums for senior citizen health insurance plans can vary based on factors like the insured person's age, medical history, the sum insured chosen, and the insurance company's policies. Some health insurance plans might also include add-ons like critical illness coverage or wellness benefits.
The following table shows the basic specifications of most health insurance plans for senior citizens in India.
| Category | Specifications |
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If you are looking to buy health insurance policies for any senior citizen, these policies are a good place to start. However, keep in mind that there is no set ‘best health insurance plan in India for senior citizens’. Your best health insurance policy depends on your coverage requirements and budget. So, make sure to compare health insurance plans before buying.
Seniors often face more health concerns and may require frequent medical attention, making insurance crucial to cover various treatments and medications.
Health insurance provides a safety net against high healthcare costs, preventing seniors from depleting their savings or retirement funds due to unexpected medical bills.
Having insurance ensures access to better healthcare facilities and specialists, enabling seniors to receive timely and appropriate medical care.
Many senior citizen health insurance plans cover pre-existing illnesses, providing necessary treatment and care for ongoing health issues.
Some policies offer preventive care benefits like regular health check-ups, encouraging seniors to stay proactive about their health.
Insurance provides coverage for emergency medical situations, ensuring immediate access to treatment without worrying about the cost.
These plans often provide higher coverage amounts to cater to the increased healthcare needs of seniors, offering a substantial sum insured to cover medical expenses adequately.
Many plans cover pre-existing illnesses after a waiting period, ensuring continuous care for ongoing health issues.
Some policies waive medical screenings or have minimal requirements for entry, making it easier for seniors to obtain coverage despite age-related health concerns.
Coverage for treatment taken at home due to the unavailability of a hospital bed or the patient's condition not allowing hospitalization.
Coverage for medical procedures that don't require overnight hospital stays but are essential for treatment, such as chemotherapy or dialysis.
Plans often have lifelong renewability, allowing seniors to continue their coverage without age restrictions on policy renewal.
A senior citizen health insurance policy offers a wide range of benefits to older people. Here are some key benefits of purchasing a senior citizen health insurance policy in India.
Under Indian tax laws, senior citizens can avail themselves of tax benefits on premiums paid towards health insurance policies. Here's how the tax benefits work:
For senior citizens, the maximum deduction allowed under Section 80D is higher compared to non-senior individuals.
As of my last update in January 2022, senior citizens could claim a maximum deduction of up to ₹50,000 on health insurance premiums paid for themselves or their spouse, subject to certain conditions.
This deduction is available towards expenses incurred on the health maintenance of senior citizen parents, even if they are not covered under any health insurance policy.
Buying health insurance for aging parents has to be done carefully as you would want them to deserve the best. Keep the following points in mind while choosing medical insurance for parents above 70 years:
Note: There are certain senior citizen medical insurance plans that don’t require pre-policy medical screening tests.
For Example: Mayur lives with his wife who is a homemaker, 2 school-going kids and his parents. He earns around 50,000 per month and is the only bread-earner of the family. Since his parents are aged above 65, he decided to purchase a senior citizen medical insurance plan for them. Sudden medical crisis could leave the whole family financially crippled. That was something Mayur didn’t want.
So, after assessing his parents' medical history by going through all their earlier medical reports, he browsed the web and searched health insurance plans for parents. Their pre-policy medical check-up showed normal reports and the insurance company accepted the proposal form. The policy that Mayur chose for his parents required him to pay just Rs. 6000 per month. This was the best decision that Mayur took as it left him and his parents financially secure and happy.
To purchase health insurance for senior citizens, you will typically need to provide age proof, identity proof, address proof, medical records, a filled-out proposal form, passport-sized photographs, bank account details, income proof (sometimes), and previous policy details (if applicable).
To file a mediclaim policy claim for a senior citizen, you'll need to provide the following documents:
If you have senior citizen health insurance, you'll need to follow these steps when making a claim:
Buying a senior citizen health insurance plan online from Coverfox.com has several advantages:
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) mandates insurance companies to offer health insurance coverage to senior citizens. They set guidelines and standardised health insurance policies for senior citizens to safeguard their interests. IRDAI ensures that health insurance policies for senior citizens offer lifelong renewability and allow them to port their policy to another insurer. Insurers are required to define and disclose waiting periods for coverage of pre-existing illnesses clearly in their policy documents. IRDAI may provide guidelines to ensure reasonable premium rates for senior citizens. The authority monitors insurers to ensure fair and timely claim settlement processes and emphasizes transparency in policy documentation.
A health insurance policy is especially important if you're a senior citizen. With your age, you will definitely need to start taking more precautions with your health, so having coverage is crucial. After all, with an accident or serious illness on your plate, it's going to be hard to pay for all of the costs associated with it. Having one of the best health insurance plans for senior citizens in place is always a good course of action in this case.
The "Golden Years" aren't quite that golden as you age. The loss of regular income due to retirement can only add to the distress of an ailing health. Hence, unless you're born with a silver spoon, a decent health insurance plan can be your only Messiah during this stage of your life.
As premiums are primarily dependent on the age of the insured member, the health plans for senior citizens are costlier than the regular health insurance. However, plans such as Star Health Insurance's Red Carpet for Senior Citizens offer coverage at standard premium irrespective of the age bracket.
The price or cost of health insurance for senior citizens varies from one insurer to another on several factors. You can speak to the advisory team of Coverfox.com to get details of the best health insurance policy for senior citizens.
Under the Section 80D of the Income Tax Act 1961, Senior Citizens can avail tax benefit up to Rs.30,000 each year on the premium paid.. Similarly, if you are paying the premium towards your parents' policy, you can avail this benefit for yourself.
You can contact Coverfox.com and give details of your registered mobile number and email id as all your details which is stored in the system would be fetched. The claim request would then be forwarded by the service management team to your insurance company. It would take approximately 15 – 20 working days for the claim to be settled.
To calculate senior citizen medical insurance premium, the main factors that are considered are age, sum insured, and pre-existing conditions. At times, if your insurance company may hike your insurance premium if they find out that you are suffering from some pre-existing disease.
No you cannot buy senior citizen health insurance without medical test. The one exception is the Star Health Insurance's Red Carpet for Senior Citizens. In this, medical test is not required. You can always check the policy brochure before buying this plan.
Pre-existing conditions are the ailment or disease that existed before you bought a health insurance policy. This is significant because your insurer would not cover such pre-existing conditions, within 48 months of prior to buying the 1st policy. It means, pre-existing conditions can be compensated after 48 months of continuous insurance cover.
Co-payment is the part amount that you have to pay from your pocket for medical treatment and medication while your insurance company will pay the remaining amount. Co-pay policies are more applicable to senior citizen health insurance policies in India. While you would be paying just a part of it, majority would be paid by the insurer. The co-pay fees vary from one insurer to another. You would have to check your policy document to see if your senior citizen health plan has the co-pay option. Note that co-pay is different from co-insurance. The difference between co-pay and co-insurance is that in co-insurance the insurer and the insured person get into a contract where each party has to agree to the percentage of the total cost to be paid. Whereas, in co-pay, the insured person has to pay a fixed amount for various healthcare services and treatments.
A pre-acceptance medical screening is a technique of identifying the presence of any undiagnosed disease or ailment in a person without the signs or symptoms. Insurers insist that the insured person undergo a medical test before accepting their proposal form as the insurance company can assess their risk properly. Based on the results of the medical screening, the proposal form for the insurance policy is either accepted or rejected (in case of pre-existing diseases that are excluded from the insurance policy).
A free look period is that duration where a policyholder is given time to think over and can terminate the insurance contract without any penalities. Depending from insurer-to-insurer, the free look period could last for around 10 days or more than that. The insured can decide whether they want to continue with the policy. If they aren’t satisfied, the policyholder can receive full refund for it.
Tax benefits on senior citizen health insurance generally depend on the age of the insured person. If you are paying health insurance for your parents who are senior citizens above the age of 60, the maximum amount that can be capped is Rs. 30,000. As a taxpayer you can maximize your tax benefit up to Rs. 55,000 under section 80D you’re your age is below 60 but your parents age is above 60. If you are a tax payer above the age of 60 having health insurance for yourself and you are paying health insurance for parents, then you can get a maximum benefit of section 80 D up to Rs. 60,000. When it comes to the premium paid for self, children, spouse, or parents, the tax benefit that can be availed is around Rs. 25,000 a year.
Cashless hospitalization is the facility where an insured person can be admitted and undergo treatment without having to pay medical expenses directly to the hospital. With this facility, the insured person has to be admitted in any of the network hospitals tied up with the insurance company. On making a claim, the policyholder can inform the insurer and all the medical expenses would be compensated to the hospital directly by the insurance company. In short, the insured does not have to pay anything to the hospital and then wait for a reimbursement from the insurance company.
Senior citizen health insurance is designed for individuals between the age group of 60 years to 80 years of age, though it varies between insurance companies. However, children of senior citizens or those approaching 60 years of age are eligible for purchasing senior citizen health insurance plans.
Senior citizen health insurance is designed for individuals between the age group of 60 years to 80 years, though it varies between insurance companies. Senior citizens or those approaching 60 years of age are eligible for purchasing senior citizen health insurance plans.
Tax benefit of up to Rs.50,000 as per Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961, is offered on premium payments made towards senior citizen health insurance. This tax benefit includes preventive health check-ups as well, and is applicable when the policyholder’s parents are senior citizens, even though the policyholder himself/herself is less than 60 years.
There are two claim settlement processes that you can choose from:
Here are some senior citizen health insurance plans in India that you may choose from:
Senior citizen health insurance is designed for individuals between the age group of 60 years to 80 years, though it varies between insurance companies. Senior citizens or those approaching 60 years of age are eligible for purchasing senior citizen health insurance plans.
No, senior citizens are not required to produce evidence of income to avail a senior citizen health insurance policy. The documents that are usually insisted upon include age proof, medical check-up documents and supporting documents for any pre-existing ailments. Individuals are advised to refer to the product brochure of a senior citizen health plan to find out the list of documents required, as they will vary from one company to another.
