Why Should You Consider Buying Top-Up Health Insurance Plans?

March 10, 2017: Rising costs of medical care and increasing instances of illnesses have made the need of health insurance clear across the country. To ensure that your medical costs are taken care of, a health insurance cover is essential. From young adults to senior citizens, everybody should have a health insurance plan.

With a wide range of health insurance companies offering an insurance cover for your health, it requires research for you to choose the one that is most suitable. A health insurance plan provides a cover for medical expenses arising out of hospitalisation and certain other medical expenses. The premium for the same depends on various factors that include age, previous medical history, profession, gender and whether you are a new policyholder. A good health insurance plan provides you with the best treatment for your disease and will also ensure that the expenses are covered.

There are two variants in a health insurance policy:

1. Regular Mediclaim Policy: A plan that reimburses hospital bills up to the sum insured chosen.
2. A Top-Up Health Plan: You can either pick a top-up health plan or choose a regular plan with the option of top-ups.

Top-Up Plans

A top up health insurance coverage is like a regular mediclaim policy, albeit with high deductibles rendering the policy much cheaper than regular plans. This can be purchased as a separate policy. The aim behind the top up plan is to provide an extra cover at a reasonable price. You can get an additional health cover without having to pay a large sum. It is very important to check the deductible criteria for a single illness.

Some private insurers like Apollo Munich offer the option to even convert your top-up plan into a regular plan at certain life stages, like retirement. This is a useful feature considering the Healthcare inflation of 20% per annum in India.

Source: www.relakhs.com

A top-up plan offers health insurance coverage for the insured over and above the regular health insurance policy he/she already has. It is a cover which will reimburse the expenses once you have exhausted your limit for the policy. A top-up health insurance coverage is ideal when you want to expand your plan and not pay a huge amount. Small illness or diseases will exhaust the amount of your regular policy while a top up will help you cover additional expenses which exceed the limit.A top-up health plan will play its role for the same instance of illness or hospitalization when you have exhausted your specified limit in the basic plan. This means that if you have an insurance of Rs. 2 lac, and your cost of treatment is exceeding that, the top-up plan will come into action once your primary health cover is exhausted.

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No Medical Check-up Required

Another benefit of a top up health plan is that most insurance companies do not require a medical check-up up to the age of 55 years.

Covers All Types of Hospitalisation Costs

When you take a normal health insurance policy, there will also be a choice of rider for you. A rider, such as a critical illness rider, will provide a cover for a few serious illnesses which have been previously specified. In contrast, a top up will cover hospitalisation costs arising out of all treatments covered by the basic policy.

When Top-up is Not Used

The characteristic of a top-up plan is to provide a cover for one single hospitalization incident. This means during a single hospitalization incident, if your bill exceeds the deductible amount, only then the top-up plan will be used. Now, if an individual has a top up plan and is hospitalized twice in a year, but does not exceed the deductible amount in a single instance, then the top up plan will not be applicable. You should also be clear on what the policy deems as a single illness, etc.

A top-up plan is an ideal and easy way to expand your insurance cover without having to spend a huge sum of money. It being an independent policy, you do not need to purchase a regular policy to activate the top-up plan. It will help you cover additional expenses and provide for the rising costs of medication. Depending on your age, medical condition, and requirement of the plan, you can choose the appropriate top-up plan.