As the Government of India introduced the first health insurance policy in 1986, we can say that the history of medical insurance is not very old in our country. Health insurance plans undoubtedly remained unpopular and unknown for a long time in India.
People of that generation were undoubtedly healthier than we are now. And it would not be unfair to blame our hectic lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits for all of the health problems we face today.
Rising health issues and the increase in health awareness and health insurance benefits among people led to an expansion of the insurance sector, and several new businesses joined the stage among which, if we compare health insurance, Care Health Insurance ranks first among the most well-known health insurance companies in India. It is a division of one of the nation's top providers of financial services, Religare Enterprise Limited.
The Care company, which offers a variety of financial services, is well renowned for providing the greatest health insurance products, one of which is CARE. The CARE program of Care Health Insurance plan offers a distinctive feature called ‘recharge’ to their customers, it is their foremost and the most valuable service out of many other services supplied by the company.
Characteristics of CARE Health Plan
- The plan comes with a sum insured starting from INR 5 lakh to INR 6 crore.
- Regardless of claims, every policyholder is entitled to a health examination once a year.
- For all Care Health CARE Plan members, the Recharge benefit is available up to 100% of the amount covered.
- Guarantees coverage for specialist medical care anywhere in the world for insurance amounts of at least INR 5,00,000.
- This insurance also includes add-on coverage and a no-claim bonus of up to 50% of the amount covered.
- Offers benefits for 30 days prior to hospitalization and 60 days following hospitalization.
- The coverage covers the costs of a second opinion for a few essential disorders.
- When an insured person receives an organ donation, the medical costs of the organ donor are also covered by this plan.
- Policyholders over 61 years old are eligible for a 20% co-pay.
- If you have a pre-existing ailment/illness, the plan comes with a waiting period of 4 years.
- The Care Health CARE Plan also provides a limited amount of room rent coverage.
- Under this plan, an ambulance cover of up to INR 2,000 to INR 5,000 can be availed.
What is the Recharge Feature of Religare Health Insurance?
Word-for-word, ‘Recharge’ feature in Religare Health Insurance stands for reloading. It implies additional health coverage at no further expense. Needless to mention that this feature was introduced to the CARE plan keeping the exact intention in mind.
Take an example, Akash Gupta has purchased a family floater health insurance policy, what would Akash Gupta do if one of their family members fell sick and used up the entire claim amount? Well, Akash Gupta was smart as he took the insurance policy from the companies that offer the recharge or restore feature.
Didn’t understand how it works? Fret not! We got you.
Now let’s say Akash Gupta has a family floater health insurance policy of INR 5,00,000, he suddenly suffers from a chronic skin disease and the hospital bill runs up to INR 4,20,000. Now, Akash Gupta was left with only INR 80,000 health insurance claim in the policy, and his wife slipped and had to go under hip surgery which surely would cost a lot more than just INR 80,000. Here’s when the magical recharge option kicked in and helped them up. Now they had another INR 5,00,000 from the restore (additional to the INR 80,000) for the surgery.
Essentially, if you have already exhausted the health insurance claim amount for the existing year and need an additional layer of protection, Care will reinstate you up to the amount of your insurance coverage for the current year. Provided that the prerequisites mentioned below are satisfied.
Conditions to be Satisfied
- The ‘Recharge’ feature can be used only if your current policy year's no claim bonus and the sum guaranteed has been fully used up.
- The amount of the recharge cannot be greater than the total covered for that insurance year.
- The recharge option will only be accessible for claims in the future; it won't cover the illness or injury for which the claim was already paid.
- The remaining amount of the recharged amount will be accessible for use throughout the whole insurance year until it is completely depleted.
- You can not use the recharge feature if there is only one claim made in a specific policy year.
- Your unused recharge credit cannot be carried over to the next insurance year.
Note: The recharge feature is not available for some covers.
People who are less familiar with the insurance industry sometimes mistake the restore and recharge features to be the same. But, when it comes to the insurance industry, these two phrases couldn't be more dissimilar from one another.
Restore: Restore benefit is offered if the policy's basic sum covered falls to zero. You cannot use the restore facility for the exact alignment, just like with recharge.
Recharge: Recharge gets activated if the sum insured is not sufficient for the insurance claim.
Final Takeaways
According to all available information, the recharge function is one of the greatest perks that anyone would like to request when or before taking out an insurance plan. Therefore, the CARE plan is the finest and most often advised in the industry if you as a policyholder wish to recharge benefits with an insured value of INR 5 lakh and higher. The finest potential components of this plan include the ability to get a no-claim bonus of up to 150% (optional benefit) over the course of five years and recharge benefits.
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