What is the maximum age of entry for health insurance policy?
Maximum Age of Entry
Maximum age of Entry means till what age Insurance Company are willing to underwrite Health Insurance. Most of the Insurance Company specify Age 60 as Maximum Age of Entry – thereby meaning any person who is aged 61 will be issued fresh Health Insurance policy. For calculation of age, nearly all the companies consider age completed as on the date of filling up of the application form. Thus person who is aged 60 years and 364 days can take fresh health insurance subject to medical underwriting.
Max Bupa presently issues Health Insurance for person aged above 60 subject to Medical Underwriting. Public sector Insurance Company have announced Senior Citizen Health Insurance Company wherein person aged 70 can take Health Insurance of up to Rs 2 Lac, subject to medical underwriting.
Star Health Insurance has Red Carpet Health Insurance for Senior Citizens.
Maximum Renewal Age:
It is as per author, the most important criterion for deciding which company should one choose for taking Health Insurance. Most of the Health Insurance companies specify 65 to 70 as upper age for renewal. What happens if person survives beyond the maximum age? The maximum age of entry (i.e. for buying) in Health Insurance is 60 in most of the companies (Senior Citizen Plan launched by Public Sector Insurance companies allows coverage of Rs 1 to 2 Lakh, provided person is medically fit) and person with history of Heart Disease or Sugar, the two most common diseases are avoided by nearly all the companies ever at younger age. Presently only two companies Apollo Munich and Max Bupa provides whole life coverage.
Considering that maximum upper age of buying a fresh Health Insurance is 60, those who have Health Insurance provided by company should go for independent Health Insurance as soon as they achieve 50 years of age. Most of the companies cover Pre Existing Diseases (PED) after four continuous claim free years from same company. This assumes that his personal Health Policy will not be used in case of any hospitalization.
An important factor to remember is in case person has taken Health Insurance from two companies (say Rs 6 Lakh from employer’s group insurance company and Rs 4 Lakh from own resources), any claim will be settled by both companies in proportion of the coverage given (in this example employer health insurance provide will settle 60% of the claim amount and other insurance provider ill settle 40% of the claim). Insured person normally thinks that he will take claim from other insured company only after he exhaust the limit. In case claim amount is larger (in this example more than Rs 6 lakh) or is likely to be of long duration and larger amount, it would be better to declare both insurance at time of lodging of the claim so that the other company does not decline claim stating PED (Pr-existing Illness) as reason.
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