Health insurance is a necessity and must be included in your financial portfolio. While starting out early benefits, it is most needed in old age when the body is most reliant on medical assistance. At this time, having the financial support of a health insurance helps to protect your hard-earned savings for the golden years. The increased risk of health concerns can be mitigated using a medical insurance cover.
When it comes to availing an insurance cover for elderly individuals, these are some of the reasons why you should opt for health insurance for senior citizens:
Senior citizens health covers are offered by insurance companies for beneficiaries in the age range of 55 to 70 years. These are its advantages-
Hospitalisation cost: First and foremost is the coverage of hospitalisation. Since old age is prone to a greater number of ailments, it becomes crucial to have a safety net in the form of a health insurance cover.
Cashless treatments: Some insurance companies extend the facility of cashless hospitalisation across their partnered network hospitals. This way, you need not worry about paying for the treatment cost as the insurer will take care of that.
Day-care treatments: Not all treatments require you to get hospitalised. A senior citizen health cover also includes coverage for these day-care procedures too.
Pre-existing ailments: A senior citizen health plan includes coverage for pre-existing ailments too. At this age, when health has begun its decline, it is better to have a policy that offers coverage for any existing medical conditions with an option to have the feature of critical illness cover.
But apart from financial support, health insurance policies offer a second advantage of tax benefits; tax benefits for premiums paid. Here we explain on how you can make the most of tax benefits available to senior citizens.
Deduction for Insurance Premium
Health insurance plans offer tax deduction for premium paid. This feature is not only available to senior citizen policyholders, but also other age groups. The Income Tax Act, 1961 under its section 80D helps offers a reduction of in your return of income. For folks below 60 years, this amount of deduction is limited up to ₹25,000 whereas for senior citizens, the limit is ₹ 50,000. Further, any amount spent for medical check-up is also deductible as an internal sub-limit in the above described limits. Both senior citizens and others can avail this benefit.
Medical Treatment of Specified Ailments
Apart from the above-mentioned tax benefits, senior citizens can also avail deduction for treatment of specified ailments like neurological diseases, malignant cancers, full blown acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome, chronic renal failure and hematological disorders. To avail a deduction for these ailments, you shall be required to produce medical certificates from concerned medical professionals. The amount of deduction for senior citizens extends up to ₹ 1,00,000 which is restricted to ₹ 40,000 for other persons.
The above benefits when combined with others benefits available to senior citizens like a higher limit for tax exemption up to ₹ 3,00,000 prove to be handy in further reducing the tax burden. Also, senior citizens are not required to deposit any advance tax that further help ease the liquidity requirements to avail necessary medical treatments. Thus, make the most of health insurance for senior citizens while taking advantage of its benefits and at the same time saving on taxes too!