Over the past couple of years, Health Insurance has evolved as a must-have for everyone. Its importance and vitality have found much acceptance lately owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. A health insurance cover with sufficient sum assured acts as a safety net during unforeseen medical emergencies.
With the recent rise in Covid cases, health insurance policies have provided security to policyholders by ensuring the best medical facilities without burning a hole in the pocket.
However, often a basic health policy is insufficient in safeguarding your entire family’s medical needs. Hence, to provide holistic medical coverage for your loved ones, it is advisable to customize your health policy with the help of add-ons.
What Are Add-ons?
An add-on is basically an added benefit that can be applied to your policy for extensive coverage at affordable prices. Add-ons are of different types and are designed to cater to your varying needs. People often extend their health insurance covers or purchase a policy for accidental death or disability, or critical illnesses, so that their family’s future is not affected in case of an unfortunate incident. Opting for an add-on along with the regular policy can help you achieve this state of relief.
1. Room Rent Waiver
With a room rent waiver add-on, you get to select a room with a higher sub-limit, or even without any sub-limit sometimes. Usually, there is a maximum cap on room rent in most policies. Due to this room rent capping, the provided financial cover may only apply to standard or semi-private rooms in the health plan. The room rent waiver add-on allows you to choose a room as per your preference, which includes private and deluxe rooms, with no added costs at the time of admission whatsoever.
2. Hospital Cash Benefit
This is among the most common riders that policyholders usually opt for. In simple terms, the hospital cash benefit rider pays daily cash to the policyholder during hospitalization to take care of any related hospital expenses. The daily cash could range from a few hundred rupees to a few thousand rupees. The cash can also be used to meet non-medical expenses. This rider can help you meet the additional expenses that are not covered by the policy.
3. Maternity Rider
Usually, insurance policies do not cover hospitalization expenses related to pregnancy. However, opting for a maternity cover rider qualifies you for receiving extensive coverage for expenses borne during childbirth. The maternity cover add-on mostly comes with a waiting period of 2-3 years. Hence, it is best to get this add-on as soon as possible if you are planning a baby in the near future. By doing so, you will ensure that the waiting period is over when you need to avail this policy benefit. Some insurers go as far as to offer coverage for the child after birth, till the tenure of the policy ends.
4. Critical Illness Cover
Having a regular health cover is undoubtedly very crucial for everyone today. However, having coverage against critical illnesses as an additional rider is equally important. As is suggestive from the name, a critical illness plan pays a lump-sum amount when the policyholder is diagnosed with a serious ailment, for example, heart attack, cancer, stroke, kidney failure, paralysis, etc. This lump-sum amount could be not only be used to pay off medical expenses but also to cover debts, restore lost income or for any other requirement of the insured or their family.
5. Personal Accident Rider
Much like the critical illness cover, a personal accident cover provides a lump sum amount to the policyholder or their nominee, in case the former meets with an accident that causes permanent or partial disability, temporary disability, or accidental death. This add-on could be added to your policy at a minimal cost to secure your future. The payout can be used for medical expenditures or other unplanned expenses, including replacement of lost income and even funeral costs.
While health plans intend to secure the future and provide financial backing in any unfortunate event, it is always better to have comprehensive and holistic coverage. So consider getting the above-mentioned add-ons to provide complete and fuller health coverage for your loved one.
