As healthcare costs are on a constant rise, planning financial resources towards unanticipated medical costs is absolutely imperative. While, sustaining a few medical expenses from one’s own pocket may not hit the bank balance hard, it is notable that a single critical medical condition is well capable of perturbing your finances. With increasing awareness and well contemplated employee benefits, though many are covered under basic retail and group mediclaim health insurances, it is ideal to have double protection to face such exigencies. Typically, the opted sum insured range for basic health insurance policies varies between `3-5 lakh. Bearing medical expenses beyond this sum can take a toll on an individual’s hard earned savings.
Super top up health insurance plans are an added protection in scenarios when the maximum payout from a basic health policy gets exhausted. Under Super Top Up policies, a customer can choose a specific limit/deductible amount that a policy holder will have to bear, before the insurance policy starts paying out during ‘claim’. This limit is termed as aggregate deductible in insurance parlance and a customer can opt for the figure depending on the maximum coverage of his or her basic medical policy or the expense one may extract from one’s own income.
In a super top up plan, your insurer considers the sum total of all the eligible medical expenses in a given policy period and if this amount crosses the chosen deductible in the policy, you become eligible for a claim payout. Thus, Super Top Up plans are a comprehensive and economical shield against the unforeseen medical costs that may be incurred beyond the cap of a basic health policy.
In order to offer maximum coverage, Super Top Up policies can be availed either as an individual or as a floater policy. With this type of policy one can cover self, spouse, dependent children and parents under the same policy and total number of family members covered in one policy can go up to six members.
The entry age criteria for dependent children and parents may vary from one insurer to another. There are a number of benefits that a super top up plan offers besides the regular inpatient, pre and post-hospitalisation expense covers such as aggregate deductibles, road and optional air ambulance covers, cover for organ donor expenses and free medical check-ups. There are plans available in the market with sum insured ranging from `3 lakh to `50 lakh with the aggregate deductibles options from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Waiting period for pre- existing diseases remains to be there in the Super Top Up plans.
However, few insurers have now started introducing a much shorter waiting period such as 12 months for pre-existing diseases.
Opting for affordable super top up plans can be a good way of keeping your finances in good health, as they come at a less premium and shield you during the critical medical needs. Waiting for a bad experience to teach you may not be wise, when a stich in time can save you nine.
The writer, TA Ramalingam, is the Chief Technical Officer of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.