When, we think of financial planning we take into consideration various aspects. Health care cost has now become worry some for many families especially when building corpus amount for protecting health care costs of elders.
Health Insurance mechanism is now-a-days looked upon for mitigating the health risks of the elderly citizens rather than building a corpus amount to deal with high medical bills. Some of the factors that care takers should take into consideration for buying health insurance policies are;
Elders are at high risk to diseases and are prone to falls & injuries
Older adults are the group of people who are highly susceptible to various infections. With increased age there are more chances for elders to have co-morbid conditions like Diabetes mellitus, Hypertension, Renal insufficiency, Arthritis etc. Also decrease in immune activity makes them more prone to infections. Range of infections that presents serious risks are high and includes, respiratory infections like Tuberculosis, Pneumonitis, Bronchitis etc. These infections aggravate the complaints of known old adults with disease conditions like, Asthma & Chronic Obstructive pulmonary disease. There are many other infectious diseases that present risks for the elderly.
Risk of fall increases with age & injuries due to such falls brings the burden of disease and disability. Fractures are most common in old age people due to the decreased bone density. For injuries due to falls, hospitalization is required & treatment for surgeries and implants add financial burdens on care takers. For certain surgeries, rehabilitation is required or functional limitation due to the disabilities may require home care & nursing.
Health Insurance has become immense need for old age people & senior citizens
Not many old elders were under the scope of health insurance coverage earlier, as the awareness and penetration of health insurance was low. Insurance companies have now devised health products for elders so that they can insure themselves and get rid of the financial burden in case of a disease incidence or resulting hospitalization.
Health plans for senior citizens
The existing health insurance plans offered by Insurance companies specifically for the senior citizens are useful in terms of broader coverage, coverage for known diseases with minimum waiting periods etc. However, Senior Citizen health insurance indemnity policies comes with certain limitations like restricted sum insured, sub-limits for certain illnesses/ procedures, co-payments, deductibles and the major concern i.e. high premium.
Health insurance benefits under Senior citizen policies
Senior Citizen health policies provides coverage for inpatient treatment & hospitalization, pre and post-hospitalization expenses, day care surgeries and procedures, domiciliary hospitalization, cost of annual health checkups, daily cash benefit, ambulance charges, expenses of accompanying person and named critical illnesses.
So, one should immediately think of purchasing senior citizen health insurance policy for elderly family members who are uncovered and safeguard then from any adverse health contingency also help securing there retirement savings. Senior citizens have the option of claiming general medical expenses for tax deductions.