THE debate about choosing your health insurance plan would often fluctuate between individual insurance policies and covering the entire family. Under family floaters, you can cover your entire family under a single policy. You should also understand that each of these plans is suitable for different purposes. However, what really matters is knowing which of the two suits your needs better. Take a closer look to see which of these two health plans you should opt for.

Deciding between individual policies and family policies: Your choice of insurance policy should always be the one that most specifically meets your health and family requirements. While an individual insurance policy is one that provides healthcare coverage for every individual of a nuclear family, a family floater provides health insurance to all members of the family under the same policy.

Although both these categories of health plans would serve the purpose of taking care of your financial burden in case of a medical emergency, there are some areas where they differ. To understand this difference better, take the example of a family of four members, that are, husband, wife, and two children.

Case 1: If you take individual health plans for each of the members, you have to define the sum insured for each and pay four premium amounts. In case of claims, any unused amounts from one family member can not be transferred to another member, hence making it restrictive.

Case 2: You can take a floater policy of say Rs 5 lakh for your entire family. There is no fixed limit of how much of this amount is used for a single-family member. All family members will be covered under a single policy for a single premium. The claim amount during the year is, however, restricted to Rs 5 lakh for all family members put together.

Some other aspects to keep in mind while evaluating the pros and cons of individual health plans and family floater plans are as below: Suit your age profile: In a family floater plan, there is no age restriction on the family members covered.

However, in case you need to take an individual health plan for your elderly parents, this could pose some challenges. Therefore, you could opt for specific plans for senior citizens which are tailored to suit their requirements. Similarly, for specific women-related health disorders and critical illnesses, a health plan should be taken that ad dresses the particular healthcare needs.

Although individual and family floater plans cover the same risks, it is advisable that you evaluate your family's health needs and pick the one that suits your requirements most appropriately.

Easy to manage: Another benefit of a family floater is that it is easier to l manage since all family members are covered under a single policy, while multiple individual policies are difficult to manage, for example, in terms of keeping track of renewal dates.

For a family that has a large number of senior members and a higher health risk, for instance, a couple staying with parents and children, it is suggested that each adult member has an individual health policy.