6 Reasons Why Health Insurance Premiums Change With Increasing Age

Your age has a direct and significant bearing on your medical insurance premium. As a general rule, the later in life you buy a medical insurance policy, the lighter your pocket is going to end up being with regard to the corresponding premium payment obligation. There are several reasons why that is the case, some of which have been discussed below.

• High age means higher health risks

With the passage of time, the components of any machine register wear and tear and depreciation, and the human body is no exception. As the number of candles on your birthday cake increases, so does your vulnerability to the occurrence of a wide gamut of ailments and lifestyle disorders, physical and mental alike.

Ageing has been linked with an enhancement in the risk for several chronic diseases, including cardiovascular ailments, renal failure, and arthritis. Furthermore, the increasingly machine-driven urban lifestyle has been cited as a major reason behind lifestyle disorders such as hypertension, obesity, and depression.

As a result, the higher your age, the higher are your health-related risks, leading to health insurance companies categorising you as high-risk policyholders. This is one of the main reasons why the progression of your age causes a corresponding rise in your health insurance premiums.

• Rise in the need for prescription drugs

As you add years to the tapestry of your life, there is an increasingly higher chance of you needing prescription drugs, ranging from ones as commonplace as the medication to cure a common cold to ones as complex as the treatment course for diabetes or asthma. With age, some medicines may become akin to food and water for you, adding a significant expense to your monthly budget.

Keeping the medical needs of the elderly in mind, medical insurance plans designed for senior citizens usually have a higher sum insured so as to accommodate their various health expenses, including the monthly expenditure for prescription drugs.

• Ageing affects the body’s natural immunity

As your mind and body grow older, there is usually an enhancement in your wisdom but a parallel reduction in your immunity. The decrease in your body's natural immunity makes you more susceptible to infections and ailments, which could lead to you requiring a high number of doctor's consultations, medicines, and, in extreme cases, hospitalisation.

With age comes a lower immunity which, in turn, results in higher medical bills and more medical insurance claims. This is why insurers charge a higher medical insurance premium from older policyholders as compared to their younger counterparts.

• Higher chances of critical illnesses and organ failure

Ageing has a substantial impact on various organs in your body. From your heart (increased risk of cardiac diseases) to your eyes (lower vision), and from your bone strength (higher chances of arthritis) to your lungs (rise in the development of asthma), there is no organ that is untouched by the brutal markers of ageing, which can be external or internal.

Therefore, there is a higher chance of organ failure as you become older, leading to a rise in your health insurance premium. With age, you become more vulnerable to critical illnesses such as renal failure and heart valve malfunction. If you buy a medical insurance policy with a critical illness cover, the overall cost of the plan increases.

• Enhanced need for surgical procedures

With a lower immunity and a higher vulnerability to infections, critical illnesses, and organ failure, the chances of you needing surgery drastically increase. Surgeries, major and minor alike, tend to be expensive, and if your health insurance plan has coverage for them, the impact is bound to reflect in your medical insurance premium.

Owing to the rise in the possibility of the requirement of surgical treatment in older individuals, their health insurance premiums tend to be higher than relatively younger policyholders who are looked at as being low-risk clients by insurance companies.

• Increased possibility of hospitalisation

If you require consistent medical attention for a particular ailment or condition, you may end up being hospitalised for a while. Similarly, surgeries entail a specific period of hospitalisation. With medical inflation and the high cost of hospitalisation and surgical procedures, your insurance provider may have to shell out a considerable amount to cover the costs associated with the aforementioned situations.

Since a majority of health insurance plans have coverage for pre-hospitalisation, hospitalisation, and post-hospitalisation expenses, insurers levy higher health insurance premiums from older policyholders. Therefore, the later in life you purchase a medical insurance policy, the higher it would end up costing you in terms of premium.