Do you generally renew your health insurance policy during this time of the year? Is this the time of the year when you loosen your purse strings for next year’s medical insurance policy? Well, if this is the case then you might as well use this as the opportune moment to examine the size of policy coverage?
With inflation, the cost of medical expenses goes higher, thus rendering the existing policy inadequate if the size of your insurance cover — when you first bought — was barely adequate .
Let us suppose, someone bought a medical insurance policy with ₹5 lakh coverage three years ago. That time, ₹5 lakh sum was perhaps enough for him/her. But now, the circumstances have undergone a change. Haven’t they?
Inflation has risen, the insured has become three years older, and her income has also perhaps risen, which means she can now afford to pay a higher premium.
Considering all these factors together, one can consider expanding the insurance cover. And if you are contemplating to do this, it is recommended to consider the following factors:
Make note of these factors if you are planning to expand your insurance cover:
1. Expand the policy size: In view of inflation and your growing age, you should ideally explore expanding the insurance cover. For instance, if your policy offers a coverage of ₹5 lakh and you think you should now expand it to ₹8 lakh, then you are perhaps thinking on the right lines. A little extra premium outgo will help you widen your safety net.
2. Critical illness cover: This can be bought as a rider or as a standalone policy. It can be a saviour in case the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical illness. So, in case you don’t want to expand your medical insurance cover, you can buy a critical illness cover as an additional plan.
3. Super top-up plan: There is another alternative of expanding your safety net which is to buy a super top-up plan that kicks in when the main policy’s limit gets exhausted.
4. No claims bonus: Most insurers offer no claims bonus (NCB) that effectively widens the coverage. So, if the no claims bonus has considerably expanded your insurance cover, you may not necessarily feel the need to expand the coverage.
5. Mix and match: The above options are mutually exclusive, which means you can opt for more than one, or even more than two as the case may be.
Additionally, different policyholders have different circumstances. Therefore, what plan you opt for and how big is the size of your coverage is a function of these circumstances.
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Published: 28 Dec 2023, 11:36 AM IST