How corporate India is quietly becoming the health insurer for your parents
As premiums soar and options shrink, here’s how savvy professionals are still managing to secure affordable health insurance for their ageing parents.
Getting health insurance for ageing parents can feel like a high-stakes balancing act—juggling steep premiums, limited coverage, and rigid terms. Even after paying a hefty price, long waiting periods and co-payment clauses often mean the policy doesn't deliver when it's needed most.
But for many young professionals, an unlikely saviour is stepping in: their employer’s group health plan. These plans often bypass the hassles of pre-policy check-ups and pre-existing disease exclusions, though they come with their own set of risks and fine print.
Also read: Senior healthcare crisis: Why insurance must cover more than just hospital stays
Employer cover to the rescue
Take Reetika Sharma, for example. She and her husband managed to get both sets of parents—her own and her in-laws—covered under her husband’s employer-provided health plan. The policy turned out to be a financial lifesaver when her 56-year-old mother had to undergo angioplasty costing ₹2.8 lakh, and her 62-year-old mother-in-law needed a uterus removal surgery that cost ₹1.43 lakh. Thanks to the employer health cover, they paid nothing out of pocket.
What’s more, the insurer accepted both parents despite their health history—her mother had high blood pressure, and her mother-in-law had diabetes and respiratory issues.
To get the coverage, the couple paid ₹8,145 each for both sets of parents (with the company covering 70% of the base premium) for a ₹3 lakh cover. They further added a ₹2 lakh top-up per pair by paying ₹12,160 each. In all, they spent ₹40,600 for a total sum insured of ₹10 lakh— ₹5 lakh for her parents and ₹5 lakh for her in-laws. The employer contribution applied only to the base policy, not the top-up.
Sharma didn’t buy separate health insurance for her in-laws, given their age and pre-existing conditions, which made premiums prohibitively high. Her own parents, however, have held a private policy for 15 years and benefit from lower premiums due to early enrolment. Still, they prefer claiming through the employer’s policy because it’s more convenient and faster to process.
To be sure, employer plans don’t always guarantee lower premiums. Mahavir Chopra, founder and CEO of Beshak.org, cautions that many people turn to their employer’s policy to insure parents with pre-existing conditions—since individual plans often come with long waiting periods or outright rejections. But this can backfire. Doing that increases the risk of the pool, which is generally used by insurers to calculate next year’s premium amount, which may go up.
Also read: Irdai caps annual premium hike for senior citizens at 10% annually—what it means for policyholders
How does it work?
Unlike individual plans, those offered by employers are in the form of a group plan. In such plans, the employer is the main policyholder of the group. The insurance company assesses the riskiness of the group as a whole and does not consider the individual health condition of its members.
While most companies extend this facility to parents or in-laws, each employer might have different rules and premium pricing.
Chandrani, a chartered accountant, saw firsthand how employer insurance terms can vary dramatically. At his previous job, he paid ₹9,000 each to cover his mother and father under a ₹5 lakh policy with no co-payment clause. But after switching jobs 11 months ago, the new employer charged a lower flat premium of ₹3,300 annually, with a catch: a 10% co-payment clause. That meant the family had to bear 10% of the hospital bills at the time of claims. His father, who was diagnosed with a heart condition and later passed away, had undergone surgery while covered under the old employer’s plan.
Gaurav Chopra, who works at a multinational retail chain, took a different approach. His company provides a base cover of ₹5 lakh and lets employees include either their parents or in-laws at no extra cost. Chopra decided to boost the coverage by paying an additional ₹29,000 to top up the plan by ₹20 lakh—bringing the total sum insured to ₹25 lakh.
The Gurgaon-based executive also pays ₹80,000 a year for a separate non-corporate floater plan covering his wife, son, and both parents for ₹20 lakh. His father is 73, and mother is 65.
Industry insight
Employer policies for senior citizens cost, on average, 30% less than individual plans, according to a report shared with Mint by Plum Insurance. Still, features like co-payment and room rent caps vary widely. Around 35% of employers in India offer parental cover.
Nearly 45–50% of all claims are for parents, and the average claim size is 30% higher, the report added.
The catch
Dinesh Mosamkar, senior vice-president of consumer underwriting, Tata AIG General Insurance, said that when the employee switches their jobs, their employer health insurance lapses. This means that the insurance is valid only till the employer is working with the organization. The new employer's policy might not be as favourable as the old one.
Mosamkar also said that such insurance is subject to annual renewals, during which the terms and conditions of the policy, along with its pricing, can change.
Moreover, an employer’s insurance may have a rigid structure and might not offer a sum insured beyond a certain threshold. In other words, there might be less scope for customisation in such plans. Moreover, there could be a co-payment clause. Here, the insurer specifies a certain percentage of the medical bill that has to be borne by the policyholder.
Also read: Fixing senior citizen health insurance pricing beyond the premium caps
Beyond employer plans
Super top-up plans are a smart way to expand your health cover without breaking the bank. These plans kick in only after a certain threshold—called the deductible—is crossed.
Say you have a deductible of ₹5 lakh and your hospital bill totals ₹8 lakh, your regular or employer insurance would cover the first ₹5 lakh, and the super top-up plan would take care of the remaining ₹3 lakh. These plans are significantly cheaper than standalone policies and offer generous coverage—making them ideal for covering senior citizens with higher health risks.
Sajja Praveen Chowdary, director at Policybazaar For Business, said that it’s always advisable to have an individual policy beyond what is provided by the employer. For those looking to get the employer’s insurance for their parents, read the terms and conditions carefully.
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