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Top #5 Smart Things to Know About Optimizing Your Health Insurance Benefits

By Vikas Chandra Das
21 July 2022, 11:46 AM
get the most of your health insurance policy

A basic health insurance policy would help in the reimbursement of the expenses that have been incurred during the treatment of illness up to the sum insured of the policy. For a common middle-class individual, the skyrocketing medical expenses can turn medical emergencies into a nightmare. So, to ensure that you and your family members are financially secured even in times of any unprecedented medical emergency, health insurance is a must-have.

While purchasing a medical insurance plan, you perform a lot of research to find out about those policies which can be suitable for your requirements. You also tend to invest a lot of money in the form of health insurance premiums. So, it becomes quite necessary that you understand all the benefits of your health insurance policy and utilise it up to the maximum.

Benefits of Health Insurance Policy 

1. Opting for a higher deductible

The deductible can be said as that part of the claim amount which will not be paid by your health insurance provider and would rather be paid by you. This has to be done before the benefits of your medical insurance policy are used. If you are a healthy individual and are not expecting to visit the doctor several times then you can opt for a higher deductible thus, lowering your health insurance premium.

However, choosing a health insurance plan with a high deductible is not always wise as it can cost you huge amounts if you are affected by some serious ailment.
Pro Tip: If you have a group health insurance for say INR 5 lakhs, you can opt for an individual health plan with a deductible INR 5 Lakhs. This would ensure that the initial expenses of INR 5 lakhs are paid by your group health insurance plan and the rest by your individual plan.

2. Top-up and Super top-up plans

If you are willing to avail of an enhanced health insurance cover and more benefits from the existing health insurance policy, then you can opt for top-ups. By buying a Top Up Health Insurance Plan or a Super Top Up Health Insurance Plan, you can widen the coverage cost-effectively. 
Top-up plans are also known as "Catastrophe plans" would offer you additional cover which would be beyond the threshold limit which is known as the deductible. Top-up plans can be referred to as smart tools by which you can expand the scope of your health insurance at a marginally increased cost. However, a top-up plan would only pay if your claim amount is higher than the threshold in a year. 

Super top-up plans are an enhanced version of the top-up plans which cover multiple illnesses in a year. In super top-up plans, the deductible is imposed on the cumulative claim amount which has been accumulated in a policy year. So, super top up plans pay for all cumulative claim amounts, as long as the total is more than the deductible, unlike top up plans, where each claim amount needs to be more than the deductible.
Thus, super top up plans are usually more expensive than top up plans, because of its extended coverage but it is still way cheaper than regular health insurance plans without a deductible. 

3. Increase sum assured while renewal

You can raise the sum assured on your health insurance policy at the time of the policy’s renewal.  You can do this by putting in a request and this would help you in increasing your policy’s coverage. Mostly the health insurance providers would impose some conditions such as No Claim Bonus or certain medical tests for increasing the sum assured. Moreover, in these current times when the coronavirus has been creating havoc worldwide you can also opt for including COVID coverage into your health insurance plan. Other riders which you would need such as maternity cover if you are planning to start a family, Personal Accident Cover, Room rent cover, Critical illness cover, etc. can be added to your plan to optimise it. 

4. Family Floater health insurance plan

Family floater health insurance plans help in providing cover to your entire family on the payment of a single annual premium. Your entire family can be covered under the sum assured and it can be helpful for multiple hospitalisations in the family. These health insurance plans are suitable if you are willing to have comprehensive coverage for medical emergencies but feel that the insurance premiums would be a burden on your pockets.  

5. Avoid small claims

Unless the claim amount is significant, it doesn’t make sense to claim the same. This would help you save your No Claim Bonus and thus lower the overall cost of the plan. This is a prudent way to optimize the plan.

Conclusion

Hence, these smart things would be helpful for you to conveniently optimise the benefits you would be obtained from your medical insurance policy. You must understand your requirements and purchase health insurance policies to obtain maximum benefits at a nominal premium. 

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