Importance of Health Insurance for Your Ageing Parents
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Jan 06 2023
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Nearly 2 out of every 3 elderly citizens in India have some chronic health condition. This was reported by the first Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) on January 6, 2020. The report found that almost 23% of senior citizens (age 60 and above) suffer from multi-morbidities and elderly women have higher chances of having these conditions. Despite so, just 15% of senior citizens (age 60-80 years) in the country were covered by health plans between April-December 2022. This shows how the country's awareness about senior citizen health insurance needs to increase.
Why not take the first step by realising the importance of health insurance for old age? Read on.
Importance of Senior Citizen Health Insurance
The body weakens as we age, so senior citizens are more vulnerable to physical disability and critical health conditions than the average young person. On top of that, they might now have sufficient financial means due to a lack of a regular income. Therefore, they need the support of a comprehensive health insurance policy to ward off their financial worries when they need quality medical treatment. This can reduce their stress when they fall ill and can help them recover well.
The IRDAI has made it mandatory for insurance companies to offer health insurance for senior citizens above 60 years of age. You can make the most of this mandate for the welfare of your elderly parents.
Why Do Your Parents Need Health Insurance? – Important Reasons
Beat Rising Healthcare Inflation & Increasing Mortality Rate
In 2021, the rate of healthcare inflation in India, at 14%, was the highest in Asia. Since then, medical expenses have been rising, and for the year 2023, a further 10% increase has been anticipated worldwide.
The effect of the rising medical inflation is reflected in increasing consulting fees, hospitalisation costs, costs of surgical procedures involving advanced technology, and so on.
On the other hand, the mortality rate in India has been steadily rising over the past five years, from 7.237% in 2018 to 7.380% in 2022.
Considering this scenario, it's high time to buy health insurance for senior citizens. They have not only delicate health but also financial constraints since they are retired.
ManipalCigna offers a broad range of sums insured from ₹2,50,000 to ₹1,00,00,000. The amount is high enough to take care of various healthcare expenses incurred by your parents.
Modern Medical Treatments
Modern medical treatments for life-threatening health problems like cancer and major procedures like transplants are becoming costlier since they are getting more advanced. In addition, most equipment used in reputed hospitals for modern treatments is imported from other countries. This adds to the overall medical expenses incurred. The best way to manage these costs for your elderly parents is to protect them under medical insurance for senior citizens.
ManipalCigna's senior citizen policies cover the costs for various new-age treatments for critical illnesses at network hospitals.
Includes Lifestyle Illnesses
The increasing mortality rate in India hints at the deteriorating quality of our lifestyle. According to WHO, non -communicable conditions, including lifestyle illnesses, claim 41 million lives every year. That's equal to more than 70% of all deaths worldwide. More than 15 million of these deaths happen among people who are 30-69 years old. This shows that the population segment of elderly people is the most vulnerable to lifestyle diseases, primarily due to the weakening of health with age.
Most importantly, a health insurance plan for senior citizens covers treatment costs for a wide range of lifestyle diseases. Therefore, it's a must to cover your elderly parents with an excellent medical plan to bid farewell to their health-related worries. ManipalCigna offers various health insurance policies for senior citizens covering different lifestyle health conditions, including pre-existing conditions like obesity, dyslipidemia , hypertension, diabetes, and asthma.
Wellness and Lifestyle
Coverage for lifestyle diseases is not all that a good health plan for senior citizens offers. It also comes with a cover for annual health check-ups for the insured. With this feature, insured elders are encouraged to take the best care of their health to protect themselves from illnesses and ensure overall wellness.
For the same reason, ManipalCigna's medical policies for senior citizens include coverage for annual health check-ups.
Insufficient Cover by your corporate policy
Sometimes, the health plan offered by employers includes coverage for medical expenses incurred by the insured's parents. If you think such a plan is helpful enough to manage their healthcare costs, think again. First, you must remember that it is a single cover. If you make a large claim for your medical costs, the other plan members might not get enough insurance benefits in the same year, and vice versa. Besides, the sum insured in such a plan is usually not enough to cover the high treatment costs of major critical illnesses of senior citizens.
Keeping this in mind, you should understand that it's better to protect your elderly parents under the best health insurance policy for senior citizens. It comes with a high sum insured and unlimited restoration of the amount, up to 100%.
Comprehensive Cover and Care
A comprehensive senior citizen health insurance scheme comes with various covers and other perks. This helps ensure that various medical costs can be managed by availing of the plan. At the same time, additional financial benefits can be enjoyed.
ManipalCigna's health insurance for old age includes a wide variety of covers as follows:
- In-patient hospitalisation expenses
- Ambulance cover
- Pre-hospitalisation expenses
- Post-hospitalisation expenses
- Day care treatment
- Domiciliary treatment
- Donor expenses
- AYUSH cover
- Health maintenance benefit
- Worldwide emergency cover
- Second opinion on listed critical illnesses
Below are the optional covers offered under a senior citizen health plan:
- Hospital daily cash
- Cumulative bonus booster
- Deductible
- Voluntary co-payment
- Waiver of mandatory co-payment
- Critical illness cover
Tax Benefits
The policyholder can also avail of tax deduction of up to ₹25,000 on premium payments made towards the medical plan in a financial year, as per Section 80D of the Income Tax Act of India. In the case of paying premiums for senior citizen health insurance, the tax deduction can go up to ₹50,000 annually. Although this is not a reason to buy medical insurance, it is one of the benefits of a health plan.
Keeping all the above-mentioned benefits in mind, as well as the prevailing financial scenario of the healthcare sector, it is the best time to purchase the best medical insurance for senior citizens to protect your parents. A top insurance provider like ManipalCigna also offers top-up and super top-up health insurance for senior citizens. So, avail of them whenever there is the need to add to the existing plan's cover.
References: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/almost-70-senior-citizens-in-india-have-a-chronic-illness-74944
https://nura.in/cpw/10-lifestyle-diseases-that-are-common-in-india/
https://www.policybazaar.com/insurance-companies/manipalcigna-health-insurance/senior-citizens/
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IND/india/death-rate
https://www.acko.com/health-insurance/medical-inflation-in-india/