Last updated on: August 7, 2025
The New India Assurance Floater Mediclaim Policy and the Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme Policy are both popular health insurance options in India, but they cater to different needs. The Floater Mediclaim Policy is ideal for families seeking a basic, affordable solution, covering hospitalization expenses for all members under a single sum insured, with features like maternity and newborn cover, daily cash allowance, and cumulative bonus. Conversely, the Lifeline Supreme Policy by Royal-Sundaram offers broader coverage, including higher sum insured options, restoration benefits, annual health check-ups, and no sub-limits on room rent. It also covers critical illnesses and has customizable add-ons for enhanced protection. In summary, choose the New India Assurance policy for budget-friendly, straightforward family coverage, or opt for Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme if you want more comprehensive features and greater flexibility.
Getting the appropriate health insurance is a very important choice that all Indian families make. The New India Assurance Floater Mediclaim Policy and the Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme Policy are the most selected ones among the Indian options in 2025. Both policies are offered to families and individuals who need to have a comprehensive health cover but with some special benefits. This is the comprehensive guide to features, advantages, and disadvantages of the two possibilities, so that you could choose what to do with a choice made after a direct comparison of what each of these two offers.
The New India Assurance Floater Mediclaim Policy is a reliable health cover in 2025, particularly to those families who demand better coverage with reasonable premium rates. This policy reimburse the medical costs of all insured members within the family on a floater basis implying that one sum insured is paid to any or all the insured members.
According to IRDAI reports, in 2024, more than 73 percent of the urban Indian families were inclined towards the family floater policies because of their flexibility and affordability.
Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme is the powerful, mid-tier health insurance plan designed to widen coverage and include valuable add-ons in 2025. The Supreme variant is a product in the lifeline line by the Royal Sundaram that can attract individuals who are interested in high sum insured and additional features but do not want to cross into the luxury plan segment.
The plan would be appropriate to young, middle aged professionals and families willing to have good coverage with added benefits such as health checkups and international emergency protection.
Royal Sundaram data show that 31 percent of urban policyholders chose higher sum insured plans in 2024 after the pandemic.
Characteristic | Floater Mediclaim by New India Assurance | Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme |
---|---|---|
Maximum Amount of Sum Insured | 2-15 Lakh rupees | 5-50 Lakh rupees |
Family Floater Option | Yes, to 6 members | Yes, to 6 members |
Maternity Benefits | No, not included | Yes, covered after 3 years waiting period. |
Health Checkup | Offered on completion of four years claim-free years of the members | Annual health checkup of all the members. |
AYUSH Treatment | Premised up to sum insured | Premised up to sum insured |
No Claim Bonus (none) | 5 percent/year to 50 percent | 20 percent/year to 100 percent. |
Pre-existing Disease Cover | 48 months waiting period | 36 months waiting period |
Room Rent Limit | 1 percent of sum insured/day | No sub-limit (to sum insured) |
Network Hospitals | 6000+ | 5000+ |
International Cover | No | Yes (Emergency assistance) |
Pre and Post Hospitalization | 60 and 30 days, respectively | 180 and 60 days, respectively |
Premium (family of 4, age 35) | Approx 14,000 Rs (5 lakh sum insured) | Approx 18,500 Rs (5 lakh sum insured) |
New India Assurance Mediclaim plan covers a broad scope of treatment expenses such as; room rent (limited to 1 percent of sum insured), doctor fees, nursing as well as medicines. But the sub-limits of room rent may affect the claim of users in the premium hospitals.
Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme is one that does not have capping of room rent. This particularly comes in handy to the urban families who like private single AC rooms in the prestigious city hospitals.
Does it matter in health insurance whether room rent is capped?
Yes. In case your hospital room rent is higher than the capping, the insurer will proportionately decrease all claim amounts that are eligible, which implies increased out-of-pocket expenditure.
New India Floater Mediclaim 48 months-pre-existing diseases.
Royal-Sundaram Lifetime Supreme: 36 months.
The scheme by Royal Sundaram allows policyholders to receive coverage on chronic conditions immediate, and this is a savior to individuals with a past medical history.
The average age at which family floater health insurance is purchased in the country is 35 in 2025. Experts suggest adopting a plan that has the shortest waiting time to families whose members have history of diabetes or hypertension.
Royal-Sundaram provides free health checkup to all insured members irrespective of the claims. The checkups offered by new India are limited to 4 years in a row of claim-free years of the life of the oldest member. Routine checkups identify health conditions at an early stage, which is priceless.
Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme is a great combination: annual checkups, second medical opinion, mat and newborn cover, and international emergency benefits. The features enable the families to broaden their risk coverage beyond the basic needs of hospitalization. New India Assurance though inclusive is simple and does not have maternity and international cover.
Does New India Assurance offer maternity benefits?
No, their floater mediclaim of 2025 does not cover maternity and newborn.
In a customer survey conducted in 2024, 43 percent of the customers gave a reason of room rent sub-limit as a reason behind leaving their current mediclaim policy.
Indian families are fond of the floater concept since it uses the sum insured in a flexible way. Both policies include:
Royal Sundaram however allows dependent children to be covered at the age till 25 and New India up to 18 or 25 as long as the student is a student.
These floater mediclaim policies can include parents?
Yes, the two plans have an alternative of including the dependent parents with adjusted limits and premium calculation.
Case Study 1: A family of 4 in Mumbai chooses to take New India Assurance Floater Mediclaim of 5 lakh cover. Their main hospitals are mostly network hospitals in tier 2 cities. They spend an average of 80000 rupees a year on hospitalization and the bills can be repaid as part of the policy norms. They are price-sensitive and they do not need maternity benefits.
Case Study 2: A young couple of Bangalore with a child coming is planning to travel abroad and they like the Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme. It includes maternity (following the waiting period) and also overseas emergencies. The couple believes that the higher premium is worth it because the premium is larger and value added.
Lifeline Supreme is wiser as long as you are seeking maternal health insurance or you are travelling to other countries. New India Floater is a good option where the budget family protection is required with an essential cover and network hospitals that are reliable.
In deciding which of these two leading family floater health insurance policies suits the best:
It is prudent to employ online insurance market places that are reliable. These platforms help you:
One stop comparison allows you to have a better negotiating power and a value-for-money protection on your family.
In 2024, more than 60 percent of new purchasers of Mediclaim policy bought or renewed their treatment following the comparison of different plans through online platforms.
The two policies are both renewed over a lifetime and portability to other similar policies is possible. In the Income Tax Act 80D allows claiming a deduction of tax on premiums up to 25,000 rupees (50,000 in case of senior citizens).
Q. What is the more appropriate policy to the pre-existing diabetes parents?
Royal-Sundaram Lifeline Supreme has a reduced waiting period of 36 months to pre-existing diseases which makes it more appropriate.
Q. Under both policies, is cashless treatment an option?
Yes, both policies provide the cashless treatment in their corresponding network hospitals in India.
Q. Is Royal Sundaram Lifeline Supreme inclusive of the vaccinations?
Yes, it offers the newborn vaccination benefits in the form of the maternity add-on following the waiting period.
Q. May I add to the sum insured in later years?
The two insurers offer you an opportunity to increase sum insured upon renewal on medical underwriting and conditions.
Q. What are tax advantages of such floater health insurance policies?
Premiums paid are subject to tax deduction under Section 80D, in both cases of self and family premiums (limits as per the government).
Q. What to do to verify the ratio of claim settlement of the insurer?
Recent claim settlement statistics are available online on the IRDAI annual report or on individual insurers websites.
How could we improve this article?
Written by Prem Anand, a content writer with over 10+ years of experience in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sectors.
Prem Anand is a seasoned content writer with over 10+ years of experience in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sectors. He has a strong command of industry-specific language and compliance regulations. He specializes in writing insightful blog posts, detailed articles, and content that educates and engages the Indian audience.
The content is prepared by thoroughly researching multiple trustworthy sources such as official websites, financial portals, customer reviews, policy documents and IRDAI guidelines. The goal is to bring accurate and reader-friendly insights.
This content is created to help readers make informed decisions. It aims to simplify complex insurance and finance topics so that you can understand your options clearly and take the right steps with confidence. Every article is written keeping transparency, clarity, and trust in mind.
Based on Google's Helpful Content System, this article emphasizes user value, transparency, and accuracy. It incorporates principles of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).