The cost of hospitalization and medicines has gone up multifold in the past few years. Besides, the effect of inflation on everything including treatment and healthcare has made it necessary to have a comprehensive health insurance policy that covers everything including expenses on hospitalization, medicines and palliative care.
On this “World Health Day”, let us discuss the various aspects of health insurance, top-up health plans and super top-up health policies.
You may either opt for a high medical cover after considering all possibilities of your family’s insurance needs or choose to bolster your insurance with add-ons that can be used to pay high and multiple medical bills. For example, even after having a base insurance policy, you may buy a top-up or a super top-up health insurance plan. Both these plans are available at reasonable premium prices and offer a higher insurance amount.
Understanding add-ons
Many people feel frustrated when they are unable to understand how add-on policies like top-up and super top-up health plans work. The most common reason behind this is the lack of understanding of deductibles that again depend on the threshold limit in top-up or super top-up plans.
To start with, let us understand that your top-up and super top-up plans will trigger only when the claim amount exceeds the deductible amount or threshold limit. For example, if you have sought a base plan with an insurance cover of ₹5 lakh while the deductible of the top-up or super top-up plan is also ₹5 lakh. Then the latter will be effective only when the medical bill exceeds ₹5 lakh and the insurance company has paid the base claim of ₹5 lakh. Amount in the medical bill over and above ₹5 lakh will then be paid under the top-up plan.
Also, many people do not realize that in a top-up cover, the deductible applies on a per claim basis. This means that the deductible applies to each claim separately and that every claim amount must be more than the deductible limit to trigger the top-up claim cover. However, the super top-up cover acts on an aggregate basis. This means that one super top-up health insurance plan taken can be used for more than one claim. The policyholders can put to use the super top-up insurance only when the total claim in all your health policies crosses the threshold limit.
Top-up Vs Super top-up plans
In today’s world, we may be subject to a situation where we feel the dire need of paying for both top-up and super top-up health insurance plans. Both these plans lend you access to a very high insurance amount at nominal rates, which means that you do not have to bear the brunt of paying your medical bills from your savings.
Your health insurance requirement depends a lot on your current health conditions. If you do not suffer from any ailment or disease that necessitates frequent hospitalization, you may opt for just one top-up policy along with your base policy that will take care of your health insurance requirements. However, make sure that the deductible in your top-up policy must equal the insurance amount in your base policy.
If you or your loved ones tend to fall ill and are hospitalized frequently, a super top-up health policy can be of immense help. This is because the heavy bill amount can be taken care of by the super top-up policies. Once the deductible amount is paid, your super top-up plan becomes active for later claims, unlike a regular top-up plan that covers single claims over and above the deductible amount.