Health insurance: Here's why having a back up plan may be beneficial

Health insurance has become necessary, especially in times of a raging pandemic and the consequent salary cut and job losses amid the slowdown brought by the second wave of Covid-19. Moreover, healthcare is getting costlier and we are spending much more compared to what we used to spend earlier. It is, therefore, important to buy a health insurance cover keeping in mind the future cost of hospitalisation.

“Cost of hospitalization owing to coronavirus is running into lakhs depending on city and type of hospital for the 10-14 days of treatment. What has also been witnessed is that in the second wave, if one family member gets infected, many other members also get infected in a quick time. How the pandemic will shape up during the third wave is something not known to even doctors and medical science. Buying adequate coverage of around Rs 25 lakh could be of help at the time of hospitalization especially for those living in tier I cities,” said Sanjiv Bajaj, Joint Chairman & MD Bajaj Capital.

If you do not have an adequate sum insured, here are a few ways of increasing your health insurance coverage:

Top-up/Super Top-up

If you already have a basic health insurance policy, then you can increase the cover by buying a top-up policy. Top-up policy gets triggered when your hospital bills exceed a threshold limit known as deduction. The top-up policy only covers the amount exceeding the deductible amount. Having said that it is important to note that top-up plans work on per single hospitalization basis and pays your hospital bills only when a single claim amount is above the specified limit.

On the other hand, super top-up plans consider the aggregate of the claims in a year and not a single hospitalization bill. It is advisable to go for a super top-up plan as the probability of a single claim cost exceeding deductible is low. These policies are available in both individual and floater sum insured options.

Reinstatement of health insurance policy

Under the reinstatement feature, the sum insured of your health policy is restored to its original amount after paying an additional premium amount. Many companies charge an extra premium at the time of selling the policy others might deduct it from the claim amount after which the policy gets reinstated within the time that the insured person suffers hospitalization. This process ensured that the full amount of the basic sum remains available for the remaining period of the policy. However, you need to know that once the policy gets reinstated, it cannot be used to claim for the same ailment for which the initial claim was filed.

Consider increasing the cover of your health insurance policy and keep your family adequately covered in case of any adverse medical situation.