Enhance your insurance cover with inexpensive top-up plans

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Healthcare has become expensive. With the outbreak of the pandemic, hospital stay has become much longer leading to high hospital bills. It is, therefore, important to buy an adequate sum insured for fully covering the increasing cost of hospitalisation. For example, besides covid treatment, the surgery cost for black fungus can be as high as Rs 10-12 lakh depending on the severity of the case.

The cost of treatment also depends on the city you live in and the type of hospital you choose for the 10-14 days of treatment. Buying adequate coverage of around Rs 25 lakh could therefore be helpful at the time of hospitalization especially for those living in tier I cities. Moreover, it is seen that because Covid-19 being infectious illness other members also get infected in a quick time. It is therefore advisable to buy a top-up cover to give complete protection to your family by having an adequate sum insured.

What is a top-up policy?

Top-up policy gets activated when your hospital bills exceed a threshold limit known as deduction. It is therefore always advisable to have a basic health insurance policy first and then increase its coverage by buying a top-up policy. It is important to note that the top-up policy only covers the amount exceeding the deductible amount.

Compared to the basic policy, top-up plans are much 30-40% cheaper as they have a threshold limit before the coverage starts. So, if you want to increase the premium but the high premium was a roadblock then Top-up policies are a way to go. These policies are available in both individual and floater sum insured options.

Top-up or super-top-up policy?

Top-up plans work on a single hospitalization basis and pay your hospital bills only when a single claim amount is above the threshold limit. On the other hand, super top-up plans consider the aggregate of the claims in a year. It is advisable to go for a super top-up plan as it saves you from claim rejection if the single claim doesn’t increase the specified limit.

When to buy top-up?

It is not mandatory to buy a basic policy before a top-up policy. But by having a basic policy you can keep your family entirely covered up to the deduction limit. However, at times when senior citizens are not able to buy basic cover because of the high sum insured they can consider top-up plans as they can cover their hospital bills above the deductible limit.