If you are an Indian living abroad, you must be well aware of the heart-wrenching feeling when you receive a call from Home at an odd time. Your mind throws up the worst possible scenarios. And no matter how immediately you want to reach your family, the distance between the lands does not permit it.
Leaving India for better career prospects or in search of a better quality of life brings a sense of excitement, but is also accompanied by a fear of leaving your loved ones behind, the fear of not being present when they would need you the most.
A critical question for NRIs is how to ensure their presence back home when an emergency occurs. How you deal with it can be life-turning, especially in medical situations, which are accompanied by a lot of ‘what ifs’.
“What if I am not there when a medical emergency occurs at home, who will take them to the hospital? What if my parents need major surgery and long-term care, how will hospital bills be paid?”
Though you may not be able to hold their hand when they are being taken to the hospital, having medical insurance in India can provide financial protection and help ensure access to uninterrupted treatment.
Key Takeaways
- Most foreign health insurance plans do not cover treatment in India. As an Indian living abroad, you must have health insurance in India to protect your family back home as well as yourself when you return.
- NRIs are allowed to buy individual, family floater and senior citizen health insurance policies from IRDAI-authorized insurers in India. Premiums can be paid through their NRE or NRO accounts, or through eligible accounts linked to net banking and UPI.
- From September 22, 2025, the earlier 18% GST on health insurance premiums has been removed, including for NRIs, thereby lowering premium costs.
- You must compare multiple plans to evaluate important policy features online before choosing a health insurance plan.
- Give more weightage to the waiting period for pre-existing diseases, network hospitals, restoration benefits, co-payments and sub-limits in a policy than its premium.
- Avoid submitting incomplete documentation, mentioning incorrect details or hiding pre-existing health conditions when buying a health insurance plan in India.
- Do not wait for the last moment, buy health insurance in India at the earliest to ensure comprehensive financial protection.
Do You Need Health Insurance in India if You Don’t Live Here?
Now the question arises, do people not living in India even need Indian health insurance?
The first thought might be otherwise, since you are already paying for health insurance in the country where you are living. However, you must remember that these plans usually do not extend coverage to medical treatments in India. It will not cover your parents in India or even you when you visit back home.
If your parents need an immediate surgery or you get hospitalized during your visit, your abroad health insurance will not cover these expenses. It means you will have to pay for the entire medical bill from your own pockets unless you have an Indian health insurance policy.
Moreover, if you are planning to return to India in a few years or retire here, buying health insurance in India as early as possible can be a wise decision. The earlier you buy, the more affordable premiums you can get and the sooner you are able to complete the waiting periods. This is significantly helpful when you finally return to the country.
If you are an Indian settled abroad, domestic health insurance can be useful in the following ways:
- To cover the medical costs of your ageing parents in India
- To get financial protection for yourself when you visit the country
- If you are planning your return or retirement in India
Can You Actually Buy Health Insurance Plans in India from Abroad?
Yes, Indians living abroad are eligible to buy health insurance plans in India from IRDAI-regulated insurers. One important thing to remember is that most of these plans cover treatment only in India.
As an NRI, you can easily buy a new policy or renew an existing health plan online from abroad. You can choose from different plan types, depending on who you are buying it for. Indian insurers offer:
- Individual policy: A plan providing coverage and benefits to one individual.
- Family floater policy: Where a single sum insured is shared among all the insured family members.
- Senior citizen health insurance policy: Designed specifically for your parents above 60 years who have higher health risks and require special medical attention.
How Zero GST Has Made Premiums Cheaper?
Since September 22, 2025, the earlier applicable 18% GST has been removed entirely for all individual policies, including for NRIs. Hence, the 18% GST that was added over and above the premium will now not be added.
A policy with a premium of ₹15,000 earlier used to cost ₹17,700 with GST, but now it costs only ₹15,000. This exemption applies to individual, family floater health insurance and senior citizen mediclaim policies.
Why Should You Compare Plans Beyond Premiums?
Opting for a plan with a cheaper premium can be tempting, but that is not always the right choice. A cheaper plan with a longer waiting period or higher co-payments means delayed coverage or higher out-of-pocket costs.
Here are the important factors that you should compare across multiple health insurance plans:
- Insurer’s Claim Settlement Ratio: It is the percentage of claims accepted by an insurer against the claims received by them. A higher claim settlement ratio (CSR) implies that there is a higher probability of your claim being accepted.
- Choose an insurer with a CSR of above 80%.
- Pre-Existing Disease Waiting Period: Pre-existing health conditions have a waiting period of up to 3 years under all health insurance plans in India. Medical expenses for hospitalization arising from existing or related conditions are not covered during the waiting period.
- Choose a policy with the shortest waiting period or opt for Day 1 coverage for pre-existing diseases.
- Network Hospitals: The empanelled hospitals in the insurer’s network allow cashless hospitalization and an easy admission process. It saves you the stress of arranging money to make initial deposits before treatment begins.
- Choose an insurer with a wide network of hospitals where you can easily get cashless treatment. Also, check if the nearby hospitals are included in its network.
- Co-payment Clauses: It is the portion of the medical bill you have to bear from your own pockets. The higher the co-payment, the higher the out-of-pocket expenses. It can become problematic if you have bought Indian health insurance for your parents, as they will have to arrange a larger sum of money at the critical time of a medical crisis.
- Choose a health insurance plan with a minimal or no co-payment clause.
- Restoration Benefits: This benefit is especially critical for aging people. Restoration of the sum insured means once your base coverage amount is exhausted, it will be automatically restored to the original sum insured amount once or unlimited times during a policy year. This policy feature ensures that the treatment is not paused or delayed due to insufficient coverage.
- Choose a policy with unlimited restoration of the sum insured that can be used for the same and other illnesses.
- Room Rent Limits & Sub-Limits: Sometimes insurers put restrictions on coverage for room rent, treatment for specific diseases or certain medical procedures (like cataract surgery, knee replacement, etc.). Any amount above the mentioned limit has to be borne by you. If you do not check this earlier, it may show up as an unpleasant surprise on the hospital bill.
Key point to remember: In case of room rent, choosing a higher room category than allowed leads to not just the additional amount for the room, but affects the entire bill for the room-related facilities (like doctor’s fees, nursing charges, OT charges, etc.) proportionately, resulting in much higher out-of-pocket expenses than you may expect.
- Choose a health insurance plan with no room rent limit and lower coverage restrictions.
- No Claim Bonus (NCB): It is the additional coverage amount you get as a bonus for not making a claim during a policy year. Some policies even provide a bonus irrespective of the claims made. This bonus can be accumulated up to a certain limit, usually equivalent to the base sum insured. This cumulative benefit provides you with a higher amount to cover your medical bills.
- Choose a policy that offers renewal benefit, i.e., provides a bonus even if you have made a claim in a policy year. Look for plans that offer the highest accumulation of bonus (up to 5X or 7X of the sum insured).
- Offered Sum Insured: A policy with a wide range of sum insured options allows you to choose an amount closer to your actual healthcare needs. If the policy does not offer higher sum insured options, you will not be able to upgrade your coverage within the same policy.
- Choose a health insurance policy with a wide range of sum insured options, preferably higher coverage amounts.
How to Buy Health Insurance in India from Abroad?
You can buy health insurance in India directly from an insurer’s website or branch, or through IRDAI-regulated intermediaries, such as health insurance aggregators and brokers.
Buying directly from an insurer may be convenient if you have already decided on a specific plan. However, it limits your choices and confines you to only one insurer’s products, with no way of knowing about alternatives that may offer better coverage. Moreover, you won’t be able to truly judge the insurer’s financial stability or reputation when viewing only one option in isolation.
Health insurance plans differ significantly in how they treat waiting periods, room rent limits, co-payment clauses, network hospitals, claim settlements and other policy features. This is why choosing health insurance in India requires a thorough comparison of multiple plans from different insurers. Online insurance aggregator platforms allow you to easily assess different policy features side by side on a single screen. This helps you shortlist plans based on the factors that matter most to meet your healthcare needs.
Regardless of where you buy your policy from, you must always read the policy wording carefully before making a decision to ensure you do not miss important terms and conditions that may affect your coverage.
How Can You Pay Premium for Health Insurance Plans in India?
Another important question is if you can pay for the Indian health insurance plan from abroad? Or your parents will have to make the payment on your behalf?
As an Indian who lives abroad, you can pay health insurance premiums from your NRE (Non-Resident External) or NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary) accounts. You can also use the Indian net banking facility or UPI methods if they are linked to your NRE/NRO accounts. This ensures that you are able to provide health protection to your family back home without burdening them with its cost.
Remember to check the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) regulations before you choose your preferred method, as there may be some limitations or compliance requirements.
How Claims Work When Someone is Actually Hospitalized?
How a claim is processed is one of the most crucial aspects of health insurance. Everything you have been doing so far, researching insurers, assessing your or your family’s healthcare requirements, reading multiple policy wordings, etc., boils down to this moment.
How a health insurance claim is processed lets you understand what to expect in a situation where your parents require immediate medical attention, and it would take you some time to be by their side.
Will it be a cashless claim? Or will you have to pay first and raise a reimbursement later? Does your insurer settle claims easily or delay them unnecessarily?
Most health insurance companies in India offer cashless hospitalization at network hospitals. This means they directly settle the bill with the insurer without the need for you to pay money in advance. Some insurers require the policyholder or a family member to pay the bill first and then reimburse the amount later after the insured is discharged from the hospital.
If you have bought health insurance for your parents in India, cashless hospitalization is the most crucial factor that makes a significant difference at the time of need. If your parents are unable to manage claims themselves, cashless claims allow them to get the treatment without having to run across the hospital to complete the formalities.
You must also ensure to set up a nominee for your parents in India who can act as their authorized representatives, if the need arises, to make decisions on their behalf at critical moments.
Planning a Return? Should you Buy Insurance Now or Wait?
Whether you are planning a return for retirement or want to settle back in your home country sooner, buy the policy before you relocate rather than waiting until the last moment.
For instance, if you are 36 years old and planning to return in the next 8-10 years. If you decide to buy the health policy when you finally return, you may have to pay higher premiums at the age of 46 than you might have paid at 36 years.
Moreover, it is highly likely that over the past 10 years, you may have developed a health condition. If you wait, you will have to complete the pre-existing disease waiting period (of up to 3 years) before you can be covered for it.
Waiting to buy a health policy can result in:
- Higher premiums as you age
- Delayed coverage for hospitalizations arising due to existing health conditions
- Loss of opportunity to build a no claim bonus
- Higher coverage restrictions
- Fewer available policy options
Hence, if returning to India is on your cards sooner or later, buying health insurance well in advance is a wise decision.
Common Mistakes NRIs Make When Buying Indian Health Insurance
Here are some of the common mistakes that you should avoid making as an NRI buying health insurance in India:
- Assuming your foreign health insurance covers treatment in India: It is one of the most common mistakes that Indians living abroad make. It is often at the last moment that they realize that their foreign cover does not extend to India. This creates a financial burden as you will have to incur out-of-pocket expenses for all the medical treatments.
- Verify with your insurer if your foreign health insurance covers treatments in India. If not (which is in most cases), buy health insurance in India to ensure financial protection.
- Waiting too long to insure your parents in India: The later you insure your parents, the higher the risk of a health condition surfacing. This implies longer waiting periods, more coverage restrictions and higher premiums than a policy bought a few years earlier.
- Do not wait for a medical crisis to happen; ensure your parents in India are insured at the earliest to ensure they are able to get maximum coverage benefits.
- Comparing plans based only on premiums: As stated above, a cheaper plan does not always mean a better plan. You must compare insurers’ claim settlement ratios and network hospitals along with different policy features like waiting periods, sub-limits, co-payments and exclusions.
- Do not choose a cheaper policy; choose a health insurance plan that offers the best value for money.
- Choosing a family floater plan by default: It may seem like a viable option; however, with two ageing parents or a family member with a critical illness, sharing the same sum insured can be risky. A single major hospitalization can leave other family members uninsured or insufficiently covered for the remaining policy year.
- Choose separate policies for senior citizen parents or family members with critical (or chronic) health conditions.
- Not checking network hospitals near your parents’ residence: If an insurer has a wide network of hospitals throughout the country, but does not cover enough hospitals that are nearby your family’s residence in India, it will be meaningless. This is because it may take hours to reach a nearby cashless network hospital, which could delay medical care and can prove to be dangerous in serious situations.
- Always check whether the insurer covers hospitals near your parents’ place of residence. Ideally, it should not take more than 20 minutes to reach a hospital.
- Ignoring claims authority until a crisis occurs: Without arranging a registered nominee, a power of attorney or an authorized representative in advance, you or anyone else may not be able to act or make decisions on behalf of your parents, delaying treatment when it could matter the most.
- Always complete the nomination formalities well in advance so that there are no hindrances when you need to process claims for your parents’ hospitalization.
Final Thoughts
If you are an Indian living abroad, your foreign health insurance is unlikely to cover medical treatments in India, nor does it provide coverage to your family in India. But living abroad should not mean you are unprepared for critical moments that matter the most.
With the right awareness and planning, you can easily buy health insurance in India. Checking the important policy features and buying early ensures you are able to provide your family with the care they deserve. Do not let the distance of geographical boundaries keep you from being present for your loved ones back home.