Mr. Sharma is an angry man today. He is 65 and healthy and wants to buy a health insurance. He doesn’t know why it should be a problem. But apparently in India, it is. There are only a few policies that provide you with health insurance after 55, others have very high premium and stop renewals after 70. “Doesn’t this country care about its elders?” Mr. Sharma asked his agent.
But there are a few products like Star’s Red Carpet that are designed to suit the elderly and are highly rewarding to the healthy ones. For starters, Red carpet is aimed at the age band of 60-69 years with guaranteed renewals after 69 up to 80 years of age.
The other features of Star Health Red Carpet Policy that make it friendly to the seniors are:
- No Pre- screening test: It is a relief for many since going to the company appointed diagnostic centers is not always feasible, especially when the children are not staying with the parents.
- All Pre-existing Diseases/ Conditions covered after a year: No waiting period of 4 years, all pre- existing diseases are covered after a year.
- Some after 30 days: Such Pre-existing Diseases/ Conditions that did not warrant treatment for at least a year before taking the policy are covered after the standard waiting period of 30 days.
- Discounts on Good health: If good health is proven with the help of medical tests (Stress Thallium Report, BP report, Sugar and Blood Urea and Creatinine along with declaration of surgeries related to Heart/ Brain/ Cancer) then you get a discount of 10% on the premium.
- Two premium brackets: There are two Cover amount brackets of Rs. 5000 for 1 lakh and 10,000 for 2 lakh coverage including service tax.
- Fixed Premium: Premiums generally increase with increasing age, but here the premium remains fixed till the age of 80 unless there are claims.
- Guaranteed renewals: Most policies stop renewals after 65 or 70 but there are guaranteed renewals after 69 in this policy.
Now about some of the features that you should take care of:
- Star’s Red Carpet health insurance policy requires co payment of 50% on all Pre-existing conditions and 30% co payment on all other claims.
This means for every claim other than that of pre-existing disease, the Insurance Company pays 70% of Hospitalisation cost and other allowable medical expenses and you pay the other 30%. For a Rs. 10,000 claim you pay Rs. 3000 and company pays Rs. 7000. On a claim for a Pre-existing condition/ disease, the insurance company pays 50% and you pay 50%.
- Only treatment in Network Hospitals will be entitled to Cashless Service.
This means only if you are admitted to a hospital in the list given by Star Health Insurance Company will you get your hospital bills paid directly by the insurance Company.
- Pre hospitalization charges are not paid.
Most other insurance policies have 30 days pre hospitalization expenses paid but it is excluded in the Star Senior Citizen health insurance policy.
- There are limits to treatment of certain diseases; ex. for heart diseases for a 1 lakh cover amount, the company will pay maximum amount of Rs. 75,000.
|
Disease
|
Sum insured (Rs.)
|
Limit of (Rs.)
|
|
Cerebro Vascular Accident/Cardio Vascular Disease
|
1,00,000
|
75,000
|
|
2,00,000
|
1,50,000
|
|
Renal Complications
|
1,00,000
|
75,000
|
|
2,00,000
|
1,50,000
|
|
All other major surgeries
|
1,00,000
|
60,000
|
|
2,00,000
|
1,20,000
|
The limits ensure that the claim amount not exceeding these limits.
The other conditions to remember are:
- 7% of hospitalization amount is given as post hospitalization expense to the maximum of Rs. 5000.
- It also has a waiting period of 30 days for all diseases.
Star Health Red Carpet is a good plan for Senior citizens who are in
