Insurance query: Should I go for a super top-up plan for my ₹5-lakh base cover?

I am a 35-year-old male; I have a health Insurance policy of ₹5 lakh and I want to increase my cover. Please suggest what I should do about it. Should I opt for a super top-up plan or I should port my plan and get higher cover? Also do let me know if I should buy a critical illness plan.

Anurag

Glad to hear that you want to build a comprehensive protection net for yourself. It is very important to have a sufficient protection net in place during such uncertain times and especially when we are reporting the initial cases of MonkeyPox in India.

Keeping in mind the uncertain environment and the current medical inflation, a plan with ₹5 lakh won’t be able to provide you comprehensive coverage. I would suggest you to port your plan to a base cover of at least ₹10 lakh, with a super top-up of ₹90 lakh, this can give you a total coverage of ₹1 crore in just ₹10,000-12,000 per annum.

You may choose to port your existing base policy to following options for a ₹10-lakh cover: Niva Bupa’s Re-Assure Plan at a premium of ₹9,590, Aditya Birla Health Insurance’s Activ Assure Diamond (₹9,265) and Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Pro health Protect (₹11,890).

To further enhance your protection cover at a very nominal cost, you can also choose to add Niva Bupa’s Recharge Top Up (₹90 lakh) at an additional premium of ₹1,021, Aditya Birla Health Insurance’s Super Health Top Up (₹90 lakh) comes at premium of ₹2,849 or Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Super Top Up (₹30 lakh) for ₹861 over and above your base plan. To save on premiums, you may also choose to buy a multi-year policy. It is advisable to get the base plan and super top-up from the same insurer as it makes the claims settlement process a bit easier.

Critical illness: Along with the base cover of ₹10 lakh and super top-up, you may also choose to get a critical illness plan. The number of people being infected with critical illnesses has increased manifold in the last decade with most prominent reasons being pollution, stress, unhealthy food and sedentary lifestyle. While it is pivotal to take all precautionary measures such as regular exercise and eat healthy food to prevent such diseases, it is equally important to stay financially protected in case one falls prey to any such disease.

It will help the policyholder in case of income loss due to critical illness, as these are fixed benefit plans and you will get the sum insured on being diagnosed with any mentioned critical illness. In order to evaluate how much coverage you need, the foremost thing you need to do is calculate the present-day total income and expenses of your family. For instance, say, Atul Rathi — a resident of Delhi — is planning to buy a critical illness cover. Atul lives in his recently bought house with his wife — homemaker — and two kids. The monthly household expenses of Atul and his family are ₹30,000, apart from an EMI of ₹25,000 which he pays against his home loan. Now, Atul will evaluate the total expenses his family would incur in the next three years as two-three years is the minimum time period that one takes to fully recover from a critical illness. The total expenses of his family are ₹55,000 per month, which for three years will amount to approximately ₹20 lakh.

The writer is Jt. Chairman & MD - Bajaj Capital Ltd.

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