Affordable health insurance can protect your family. Is there affordable health insurance for senior citizens you can purchase for your elderly parents? Or will your current coverage include your elderly parents as dependents?
Health insurance is one of the best ways to protect your family against financial struggles because of health issues.
Can You Add Your Parents to Your Affordable Health Insurance Plan?
Unfortunately, you can’t include your parents in your current health insurance plan. However, you can purchase a health insurance policy for your elderly parents. You can pay for their premiums if you wish.
What is Affordable Health Insurance for Senior Citizens?
A health insurance policy for senior citizens can be beneficial for your elderly parents. You can opt for this policy if your parents are over 60 years old.
These plans are considered indemnity-oriented health insurance. It covers the medical costs incurred when the member is hospitalized.
However, unlike traditional health insurance, affordable health insurance for senior citizens has a limited amount of sum insured.
The reason for the restriction is that your parents or older age individuals have high health risks.
Co-Pay Ratio
Each health insurance for senior citizens has co-payment. It means sharing the cost. If your parents are hospitalized, they would pay a certain portion of the total medical cost. If the plan has a co-pay of 10%, it means that your parents would have to pay 10% of the claim from their own money.
Pre-Existing Illness
If your elderly parents have pre-existing illnesses, they can be covered by health insurance for senior citizens. However, there’s a waiting period for the coverage. Since this plan is designed for people above 60 years, the waiting period is low. It means that the coverage is available from the earliest possible date.
Pre-existing medical diseases are health conditions that have been diagnosed with before purchasing a health insurance policy.
For example, if your mother has been diagnosed with a cardiovascular condition before having a health insurance policy, then such a heart condition is pre-existing.
There’s a waiting period before coverage is given to expenses related to pre-existing diseases.
When finding health insurance for senior citizens, it’s ideal to sign up for a policy with the shortest waiting period.
Keep in mind that older individuals have higher chances of being hospitalized because of their pre-existing conditions.
Does the Health Insurance for Senior Citizens Include COVID-19 Cases?
It depends on the health insurance policy. But most health insurance companies that offer plans for senior citizens include full coverage for COVID-19 treatment costs.
However, you still need to study the policy of your parents’ plan.
How to Buy a Health Insurance for Senior Citizens?
When buying health insurance for senior citizens, there are many things to consider.
Critical Illness Benefits
Critical illness can include kidney failure, cancer, paralysis, and cardiovascular diseases, among others. The medical expenses related to these illnesses are higher compared to the overall costs of other types of diseases.
Unfortunately, senior citizens are prone to one or some of these diseases. For that reason, you need to make sure that your elderly parents’ policy has coverage for critical illnesses.
Domiciliary Care
Your elderly parents’ doctors might prescribe treatments that can be done at your parents’ home. These treatments are recommended if your parents are unable to move.
With domiciliary care, health insurance will cover the expenses related to out-of-home treatment. This type of treatment is common among senior citizens.
Thus, make sure to consider affordable health insurance for senior citizens that cover these expenses.
Psychiatric Care
Depression is common among the older population. Over 50% of people above the age of 60 suffer from a certain form of depression.
In that case, you might want to consider getting a health insurance plan for your elderly parents that include psychiatric care.
Alternative Treatments
There are health insurance policies for senior citizens that can cover alternative treatments. If your parents prefer to receive an alternative form of treatment, like yoga and homeopathy, then having a health insurance policy that covers alternative treatment is ideal.
Typically, this type of coverage is an add-on coverage.
Choose a Policy with High Sum Insured
Medical costs for treating your aging parents are high. For that reason, you must find a policy with a higher sum insured value.
However, make sure that such a policy comes with reasonable premiums.
Because of the rising medical costs, you must not opt for a policy with a lower sum insured. Even if you need to pay more for the premium, a higher sum insured will be advantageous in the long run.
Who is Going to Pay for the Policy?
If your elderly parents can afford to pay for their health insurance premiums, then your parents can consent to purchase a policy for them.
However, if they can’t afford them because of their age and financial status, you might consider paying for the premiums as a gift for them.
Final Thoughts
Purchasing affordable health insurance for senior citizens is vital considering the rising costs of medical treatments. Even though you or your parents need to pay for the policy’s premium every month, it’s still a worthy investment.
Find out more about affordable health insurance here.
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