Prevailing Scenario - Health Insurance for Senior Citizens in India

A common rule applies for all health insurance products - the older an individual, the scrutiny for conducting clinical and medical examinations becomes stricter.

Across the various insurance companies that offer health insurance policies in India, there are many choices regarding health insurance products and services. However, once an individual crosses 50 years of age, his/her options become limited since most insurance companies do not issue fresh health insurance policy covers beyond this threshold.

It is also mandatory that an individual requires to undergo certain required self-paid medical tests.

There are numerous circumstances wherein an individual may be denied a health insurance cover based on various reasons or on the ground of him/her being medically unfit.

Health Insurance Policies for Senior citizens

Given below is a list of standalone health insurance policies for senior citizens, the covered age band and the maximum sum insured being offered to such individuals. To facilitate comparison amongst such products, a list of indicative premiums assuming that the health insurance policy is for a 60-year-old with a sum insured of Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000) is described below:

Insurance Policy	Entry Age (Years)	Max. Sum Insured (Rs. Lakh)	Indicative Annual Premium (Rs.) for 60 Years
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Silver Health	46-70	5	5,736
Oriental Insurance Hope	No upper limit	5	4,500
National Insurance Varistha Mediclaim	60-80	60-80	4,180
Star Health and Allied Insurance Senior Citizen Red Carpet	60-69	2	5,000

Disclaimer: It must be noted that these are indicative premiums only for year 2009-2010 These premiums are subject to change in due course of time. The author does not take responsibility for errors in aforesaid indicated premiums, as such data has been gathered by way of secondary research.