More companies giving parents health insurance. Avg sum insured in group covers hiked to Rs 5 lakh per family

About 75 million people above the age of 60 in India suffer from some chronic disease, according to the Longitudinal Aging Study. Yet, health insurance penetration within this age group is amongst the lowest due to lack of awareness, accessibility and affordability. Fortunately, this scenario has begun to change in recent years as companies are now increasingly providing Group Health Insurance (GHI) policies to their employees, which lets them include parents in the health cover.

According to Plum, an employee health insurance platform, 30% of its corporate clients have parental covers as part of their GHI policies. Most of these companies are first-time insurance buyers with an average employee strength of less than 100. The average age of employees in these businesses is 30 years while that of the parents is 57.5 years. These numbers indicate that enterprises now have a strong sense of responsibility in safeguarding the health and wellbeing of their employees and their families. Data shows that most parents around retirement age are usually dependent on their children for their medical welfare. If an employee is worried about the health of their parent, it could lead to a loss of peace of mind and performance, which, in turn, would affect the company’s productivity.

“Our parents have played an instrumental role in shaping our future and therefore, it is our moral responsibility to provide them with medical security at a time they need it most. In a country where one out of five people have diabetes and a majority of elders have pre-existing conditions, group health insurance is the best option to extend comprehensive healthcare to the elderly,” says Abhishek Poddar, Co-founder and CEO, Plum.

The covid-pandemic has also acted as a major catalyst to fuel the rise of GHI adoption with parental covers. These policies are either fully sponsored by the employer or voluntary where the employees can decide to opt for parental coverage. Plum says that during the past two years, it has also witnessed an increase in average sum insured in its policies from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per family.

Including parental covers in group health insurance comes with several advantages such as no age bar for parents, no pre-medical check-ups required, coverage is applicable from day one and it covers pre-existing diseases among others. Moreover, organisations can customize their policies as per their requirements.