'Dependents' in Health Insurance

A family member for whom an individual is willing to provide healthcare and insurance coverage by adding them to his/her insurance plan is called a dependent. An individual’s spouse, children or parents qualify as dependents. With respect to a personal accident cover, dependent children are those aged between 5 years, up to 21 years with no independent household.

Dependents can be easily added to a policy if the policy is not exclusively designed for individual coverage. If you wish to add a dependent to your policy, please reach out to your insurance provider, and they would be able to help you with the process for the same.

For single or unmarried individuals, parents can be added as dependents under the family cover. In the case of married persons, the spouse can also be added to the family plan as well as children. However, children who have a separate independent household of their own cannot be added to your insurance plan.

In the family floater insurance policy, premiums are calculated considering the age and the medical history of the eldest member of the family.

A dependent child can avail personal accident cover from the age of 5 years to the age of 21 years if the child does not have an independent household. For hospital cash benefit, the coverage begins at the age of 2 years, instead of 5 years.