There has been an increasing awareness about lifestyle ailments affecting people at large. With that in mind, more people prefer health insurance plans. A health insurance policy helps mitigate the impact of the financial blow of a medical treatment that otherwise would derail your finances, leading to a debt trap.
There are varied insurance plans that can be purchased—starting with a standard health policy where basic coverage for hospitalization is available. Then, some plans cover specific ailments that are often fatal if not treated. These plans are known as critical illness insurance covers. Apart from that, family health insurance plans can be purchased where a single coverage is available for all beneficiaries. Also, plans that specifically deal with ailments for senior citizens are available. With so many different plans that can be purchased, selecting a policy requires understanding your needs and buying one accordingly.
But when buying, it is challenging to estimate the medical inflation levels, and it might happen that your policy coverage may soon prove to be insufficient. For such times, you may need to enhance your coverage as time passes by with the help of additional coverages. Top-up and super top-up are two ways your policy coverage can be improved.
What is the top-up cover?
Top-up plans can be purchased with your base policy to extend the sum insured available. These are also catastrophe plans since they only appear after a certain threshold is crossed. This threshold is known as the deductible of your top-up plan. Compared to repeatedly looking for new health insurance plans, it is advisable to use these top-up covers to seek additional coverage. Since these policies have deductibles, an intelligent move is to purchase a top-up cover with the amount of deductible equivalent to your base health insurance policy.
Let’s understand this with an example:
Mr. Ramesh bought a health insurance policy of ₹6 lakh 10 years ago. At present, he feels this coverage is insufficient, considering his health. So, he buys a top-up cover for ₹15 lakhs with a deductible of ₹ 6 lakhs. Now, any instance of hospitalization where the medical bill exceeds the base coverage is taken care of by the top-up policy, and he need not worry about paying those expenses from his pocket.
What are super top-up plans?
Super top-up plans are similar to top-up policies, which kick in after paying the deductible. These policies are also recommended to be combined with a base insurance plan so that the base policy and super top-up take care of the treatment costs.
The only difference between a super top-up and a top-up policy is that excellent top-up plans are available for multiple hospitalization cases, unlike a top-up cover that can only be used for a single instance. Had Mr. Ramesh, in the above example, required various treatments during the same policy tenure, a super top-up policy would be useful as the coverage extends to more than one instance of treatment.
With this facility to purchase top-up plans, you can stay worry-free, knowing you need that extra coverage for the health insurance for senior citizens or your policy to keep up with the rising treatment costs. Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. For more details on benefits, exclusions, limitations, terms, and conditions, please read the sales brochure/policy wording carefully before concluding a sale.
