There\u2019s a very specific kind of financial laziness we at Ditto Insurance often notice when it comes to parents\u2019 health insurance. Most people assume things are sorted on this front. A policy exists somewhere, premiums are getting paid, and parents have been renewing it for years. So naturally, everything must be fine.<\/p>\n
Except\u2026 many of these policies were bought in a completely different India.<\/p>\n
Back then, a cover worth a few lakhs sounded respectable. Hospital costs were lower, and what seemed like adequate health insurance 10 or 15 years ago may no longer be enough today.<\/p>\n
A surgery, a few nights in the ICU, or a major hospitalisation can burn through an old policy cover surprisingly quickly.<\/p>\n
And the sum insured is only one thing you need to worry about.<\/p>\n
An older policy may also have a co-pay clause that requires you to bear part of every hospital bill, room-rent limits that can lead to deductions, disease-wise sub-limits that cap payouts for specific treatments, or weak restoration benefits if the cover gets exhausted during the year.<\/p>\n
These are exactly the kinds of details people often discover only when they need to make a claim.<\/p>\n
The problem is that most of us don\u2019t really review our parents\u2019 health insurance unless something goes wrong.<\/p>\n
So if there\u2019s one financial task worth doing this year, it\u2019s probably revisiting your parents\u2019 health insurance before life forces the conversation on you.<\/p>\n
Pull out the policy document and ask a simple question: Can this policy handle one major hospitalisation in a good hospital in your city without leaving you with a large bill to pay yourself?<\/p>\n
To make this easier, we\u2019ve put together a practical checklist covering what you should look at\u2014from the sum insured, co-payments and room-rent limits to restoration benefits, waiting periods, network hospitals, premiums, and whether it makes sense to stay with the existing policy, supplement it, port it, or buy a fresh one.<\/p>\n
The video below walks through the checklist step by step. Do check it out.<\/p>\n