Everything You Need To Know About Health Insurance & When to Increase Coverage

Suppose, you bought a health insurance cover some years ago for Rs.5 lacs. Given the soaring medical costs and inflation rates, will this be sufficient to cover you in case of a medical emergency today? The answer is, it might not be enough.Inflation not only affects our cost of living but also the cost of healing. For instance, the treatment cost of kidney transplantation was Rs.10, 00,000 in 2016 which is expected to cost Rs.17, 50,000 in 2021. Likewise, the treatment cost of heart replacement was Rs.4, 00,000 in 2016 which is expected to cost Rs.7, 88,000 in 2021. The numbers show a 97% increase in health expenses in a span of 5 years. Owing to the rising cost of health care, a top-up health plan becomes crucial.Understanding How Top Up Covers WorkTop-up health plans serve as a backup to your original health insurance policy once you exhaust the sum insured limit. In other words, your regular policy covers the hospital bills up to the sum insured and the top-up plan kicks in after a certain threshold is reached.Assume, you have an existing health insurance cover for Rs.5 lacs but you feel it may be insufficient. You wish to increase it by an additional Rs.5 lacs. If you purchase a separate health insurance policy for Rs.5 lacs (at age 35 years) it may cost you anything around Rs.10,000 – 15000 annually. However, if you buy a top-up plan with Sum Insured of Rs.5 lacs (and deductible amount of Rs. 5 lacs equivalent to your present cover) it may cost you around Rs.2000 annually. This way, you can double the health cover at a much more affordable premium.When does it make sense to buy a top-up health plan?Here are some situations where purchasing a top-up health plan can be a wise thing to do.

• Inadequate Corporate Cover

Most working people have a corporate health insurance cover provided by their organisations. But more often than not this corporate cover is insufficient to cover the entire family, especially given the growing costs of healthcare. A top-up plan can provide the added financial cushion in times of unforeseen medical requirements.

• Use of Personal Funds For Different Purposes

Often people feel they have enough savings to cope with an immediate health emergency. But sometimes the saved funds may get used towards achieving other financial goals such as a child's education, purchasing a property, a wedding, etc. Or, a situation may arise where the savings are not enough to meet the big emergency costs. A health insurance plan with top-up can keep you covered for a high sum insured limit taking the financial stress away.Why should you consider Top Up health plan?ManipalCigna has launched a pocket-friendly and competitive top-up health plan called the ‘Super Top Up’. It has the following features:

• The Super Top Up plan is designed to add extra coverage with simple and smart benefits to provide better health protection.
• It lets you upgrade your existing cover up to Rs.30 lacs. The applicable premiums are very competitive and pocket friendly.
• It has no restriction on the type of room you are eligible to claim for.
• Guaranteed Continuity Benefit on Deductible, which is built on the premise that you may not have the existing base cover in the future:
• If you quit your job, you may not have your corporate cover.
• If you utilise your liquid funds earmarked for healthcare costs for some other financial goals.
• If the existing health insurance cover does not offer value for money or had a time limit.

To help you cope with the above situations, the Guaranteed Continuity Benefit on Deductible option allows you to buy a base policy (*ManipalCigna ProHealth Protect or a similar variant) for a suitable premium.Click here to know more.This is a partnered post.