If you are 65 years or older, you become a risky customer for health insurers. This is the age when illnesses take a toll on your health and to make matters worse, healthcare costs continue to zoom. Getting health insurance cover at old age could be impossible. Hence, it is advisable to start availing of a health insurance cover from an early age and the annual renewals can continue beyond the entry-age threshold and till death.

Companies such as Bajaj Allianz General, Star Health Insurance and National Insurance have special health insurance plans for senior citizens that allow an entry age (age up to which a new policy can be bought) of 70 years. For other major players such as ICICI Lombard, HDFC Ergo and Oriental Insurance company, the health insurance products are available for citizens up to 65 years of age. These health covers, however, come with certain riders.

Health insurance covers for senior citizens has not yet caught up with tax payers two years after the government announced tax sop on additional Rs 20,000 paid for buying cover for elderly parents.

Sanjay Datta, head customer service-health, accident and motor, at ICICI Lombard, a leading private general insurer, said, “We offer new covers to people up to 65 years of age through all our health insurance policies.” According to Datta, around 5-10 per cent of the people covered by a health insurance policy from the company are senior citizens.

Once a health cover is bought at whatever age, it can be continued till either the customer wishes to or until death. Most of the companies refuse to take high-risk customers on their portfolio because health insurance has been a bleeding portfolio for companies.

Ritesh Kumar, MD and CEO of HDFC Ergo General Insurance, which has health insurance policies for citizens up to age of 70 years, said, “The government has given incentives to policyholders to cover their parents and most of senior citizens that are covered by our company are under the family health floater policies as against individual policies.”

The health cover that are offered specifically for senior citizens, such as Silver Health from Bajaj Allianz and Senior Citizen Red Carpet from Star Health, also cover pre-existing diseases from the second and third year of the policy. Such covers are not offered by the other health insurance policies offered by companies.

General insurers also have health covers where the insured agrees to share the cost of hospitalisation and treatment for pre-existing illnesses. The practice where the insured bears a part of the cost of hospitalisation and treatment is called co-pay in insurance parlance. “The co-pay element for pre-existing disease is also high in case of the special senior citizens policy,” Abhishek Kumar Singh, assistant vice-president of research, Apnapaisa.com, said. Bajaj Allianz offers a health cover with a co-pay of 50 per cent, while Star Health offers a health cover with a co-pay of 20 per cent for hospitalisation, Singh said.

According to the data provided by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), up to September 2009 for the first half of 2009-10, around 118,082 policies were sold covering 670,252 people above 65 years of age. The premium collected from such polices was around Rs 2,608.26 crore. The claims paid during the same period stood at Rs 270.59 crore.