I am looking for a health insurance policy for my parents with a sum assured (SI) of ₹5-7.5 lakh. My father’s age is 60 and my mother’s 57. Since they have some pre-existing diseases, I kindly request you to suggest the best policy that has a low waiting period for pre-existing diseases, and without sub-limits and co-payment options.

Lakshminarayanan N

Check whether your employer provides group health cover fro parents, if yes, opt for it. Otherwise, for senior citizens, it is difficult to get a cover without sub-limits. In policies where there is no waiting period, you will see a high co-payment demand. So, if your parents do not have serious health concerns, you can look for regular health plans such as Royal Sundaram’s Lifeline Supreme, Max Bupa’s Health Companion or Apollo Munich’s Optima Restore. All these have no co-pay requirement and do not have sub-limits.

The annual premium for a floater health plan from Max Bupa for your parents for an SI of ₹5 lakh will be about ₹32,000. However, note that all these plans will have a pre-existing disease waiting period. In Max Bupa’s Health Companion, the pre-existing disease waiting period for an SI of ₹5 lakh and above is 36 months.

You can also look at senior citizen-specific plans. Senior Citizen Red Carpet from Star Health is a good choice. It comes with a co-pay of 50 per cent for pre-existing diseases and 30 per cent for other claims. It has sub-limits on room rent, surgeon’s/consultant’s fee, etc. It also limits expenses on specific diseases such as renal complications, cancer and heart ailments. Pre-existing diseases are covered after a year. The minimum SI you can take here is ₹10 lakh. The annual premium for a floater plan for your parents for an SI of ₹10 lakh works out to ₹45,000.

The other choice is Apollo Munich’s Optima Senior. Pre-existing diseases are covered after three years. For specific diseases such as cataract, hernia and joint replacement surgeries, there is a waiting period of two years for treatment. On hospitalisation, there is a co-pay of 30 per cent in case of accommodation in a single room or a higher room type (15 per cent will apply in case of accommodation in a twin-sharing room or a lower room type). A co-payment of 30 per cent is applicable on specified surgeries such as hysterectomy, arthoscopy, that for cataract (each eye), etc. A co-payment of 15 per cent will be applicable on all day-care procedures. The maximum cover you can get under the policy is ₹5 lakh. You can check with the insurer for the premium.

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