3 add-on health insurance covers to consider

A health insurance policy plays a significant role in providing financial stability for an individual and his/her family at the time of medical emergencies. Typically, a health policy offers to cover hospitalisation expenses along with pre- and post-hospitalisation expenses, day care treatments (treatment procedures that require hospitalisation for less than 24-hours), and accidental injuries, among others. While it is important to have sufficient coverage amount at all times, sometimes a base policy may still not be enough to cover other expenses. You can then consider going for one or two riders/optional covers, depending on the need. Keep in mind that these add-ons involve payment of additional premium. Here are a few riders worth considering.

Hospital cash benefit

While a health policy takes care of hospitalisation expenses, you may still end up paying for certain charges while are still hospitalised. These expenses are usually inadmissible at the time of filing a claim, and include the cost of hospital gowns, gauzes, adhesive bandages and maintenance and housekeeping charges and conveyance charges. This is where the hospital cash or daily cash benefit comes in handy. It means, if the policyholder gets hospitalised, your health insurer will pay you a lump sum amount for every day of hospitalisation up to a certain number of days up to a maximum limit (varies with insurers). For instance, in ICICI Lombard’s Complete Health Insurance plan, the hospital daily cash made available is ₹3,000 per day for up to a maximum of 10 days of consecutive hospitalisation (minimum 3 days) for sum insured (SI) of ₹15 lakh and above. The daily cash limit is ₹2,000 per day if the SI is less than ₹7 lakh.

Most insurers including Tata AIG, ICICI Lombard, HDFC Ergo Health, Max Bupa, Bajaj Allianz, Star Health and Digit, offer hospital cash benefit as an optional cover for additional premium, while some insurers offer this as an in-built cover.

Tata AIG’s Medicare, for instance pays 0.25 per cent of SI up to a maximum of ₹2,000 per day of hospitalisation for shared room accommodation.

Critical illness

A critical illness (CI) cover is offered as a rider or as an optional cover by many health insurers. Under this, the insurer will make a lumpsum payment at the time of diagnosis, after which this cover terminates. Remember that, there is no restriction on the usage of the amount received. Primary breadwinners of their families, who don’t want to take chances on their health can consider this rider. Do note that the insurer will make payment only for certain diseases mentioned in the policy document and the payment varies across insurers and diseases. For instance, HDFC Ergo’s Optima Secure plan offers critical illness cover with SI of ₹10 lakh to ₹2 crore CI. Similarly, 100 per cent of the SI opted is paid out in case of Manipal Cigna’s ProHealth plan. Both policies also offer expert opinion if the insured requires it for the CI.

OPD benefit

Another rider cover to consider is OPD (outpatient department) where it covers expenses such as doctor’s consultation fees, pharmacy bills, dental treatment expenses and non-allopathic treatment. Most of the health policies offer OPD in-built in the policy but there are a few that offer this as an optional or add-on cover. Policies including ICICI Lombard’s Complete Health Insurance plan and Max Bupa’s Go Active offer in-built OPD cover while policies such as Activ Health from Aditya Birla Health and Care’s Care Freedom offer it as optional cover. Ideally those who go to the pharmacy or consult doctors often can go for an OPD cover.

But, if your plan already has OPD in-built there are other optional covers to consider. One is a maternity cover, offered by many insurers, which can be considered if a couple plans to have a baby.

Alternatively, reduction in waiting period cover can be opted. This comes in handy for those who are already suffering from pre-existing conditions such as asthma or diabetics. Generally, the pre-existing disease waiting period ranges from 2-4 years across insurers. With this rider cover, upon payment of additional premium, your waiting period of say, four years, will come down to say 1-2 years. You can also use the cover to reduce the maternity waiting period (usually 4 years), if the insurer offers it.

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