The rising price of health care is becoming a big issue for most people. With an inflation rate close to 20%, health care is burning a deep hole in everybody’s pocket. That’s why a health insurance policy has moved from a luxury product to a necessity for everyone. Apart from providing cover for hospital expenses, a health insurance policy offers numerous benefits which can be easily availed if you are well informed about the product. But most people aren’t aware of the ways through which they can extend their coverage and they just keep renewing their policy which keeps them away from the diversified benefits which a health insurance policy offers. You will get more benefits to renew or reinvent your health insurance.
You also need to keep reviewing your policy periodically, so that you can update your health insurance policy according to your changing needs and situation.
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Process of “Reinvent Your Health Insurance”
So let’s go through the various ways through which you can reinvest in your health insurance policy so that you can take advantage of it.
1) Top Up Health Plans
These plans offer you coverage over and above your existing policy’s coverage amount. For example, you have an existing policy with a cover of Rs. 3 lakhs. You can buy a top-up of Rs. 10 lakhs over the maximum limit of Rs. 3 lakhs. So in case, you have to undergo hospitalization and the bill comes to Rs. 5 lakhs, Rs. 3 lakhs will be paid from your existing policy and the remaining Rs. 2 lakhs will be paid from the top-up plan. However, you can use the benefit of top-up only once a year on a single hospitalization.
2) Super Top Up Plans
Taking the above-mentioned example further, if you have the second hospitalization in the same year with a bill of Rs. 3 lakhs, using super top-up plans you can settle the bill even if you have exhausted your basic policy amount during the first hospitalization. This means super top-up health insurance plans provide you with the total hospitalization coverage irrespective of the fact of how many times you need it in a year, subject to the maximum limit as per the plan.
3) New Policy with Higher Sum Assured
If your needs have changed over the years and you have to take care of your parents as well, in that case, you can go for an entirely new health insurance plan with a higher sum assured. There is no compulsion to continue with the same plan, but do remember to buy a new plan immediately after the current policy expires. There shouldn’t be any break between surrendering an old plan and buying a new plan this is also the way of reinventing your health insurance. Reinvent your health insurance, needs sometime a new policy.
4) Buy Add-ons/Riders
Keep checking for additional benefits being offered in the market and check with your insurer if they are offering the same. Instead of the purchase of a new policy, you can pay a little bit of extra premium to have those add-ons in your policy as an accident cover or critical illness cover. Adding riders allows you to extend your coverage, but you should add only those riders who are required.
5) Low Premiums
You can always get better policies at lower premiums. All you have to do is compare health policies in India online and select the plan that gives you the same or even better features as compared to the existing policy at a lower premium.
6) Disease-Specific
If you have been recently diagnosed with a new ailment, it calls for a change in your health care plan. The reason is, that your current plan may not cover you for such diseases, and you might lose out on it during a single hospitalization. Find out about the plans that cover your new ailment and invest in it.
7) Family Floater Plans
Till the time you are single you can invest in simple health plans, but with a growing family, you need to invest in something that takes care of the whole family’s medical expenses. Change your plan accordingly.
8) Additional Coverage
Most employers provide you with a group health insurance policy, but you need to understand that such policies are not provided according to your need and are similar for all the employees. The coverage amount of an employer-provided group health insurance is also low and it comes with various limitations and exclusions. That’s why it is better to buy an individual health insurance plan which will give you 360-degree protection against hospitalization expenses.
9) Buy Policy Online
This is the best way to reinvent your health care plans as you can study and compare all possible health plans available in the market from the comfort of your home. Once you find a policy that offers the best features and benefits at the lowest possible cost, go ahead and buy it rather than waiting for your agent to update you. Buying a policy online is quite cheaper in comparison to buying a policy offline or through any agent or broker. Buying a policy online means you can compare all policies and after that, you can choose as per your need and with this, you can also save time.
10) Known Brand
If your existing health insurance policy has low premiums but doesn’t offer much benefit or the service isn’t good then it makes sense to buy a policy with reputed brands which has a specified turnaround time to help you in the event of claims. Find out about their financial standing, claim settlement ratio, incurred claim ratio, service quality, and overall reputation in the market, and then take the decision.
Reinventing your health insurance is like giving an opportunity to health insurance for serving you, look, not all get the whole benefit of the plan, and some such unlucky that they never get the claim accepted that doesn’t mean you can’t trust. Hope these pointers of help you in getting the best medical cover for all your needs. Keep working on your health insurance from time to time to get the best of insurance covered within your budget.