Medical expenses these days are soaring high, hence medical insurance is a must. We all are well aware of this fact but there are some facts that sometimes go missed, let’s talk about them today.
Most of us have a medical insurance from our employer and hence do not buy a personal medical insurance, let’s take this up first...
Think of a scenario where you are switching from one employer to another and during that gap period you or your family underwent hospitalisation, how will this situation be handled without personal insurance?
Take another important scenario, medical assistance is required most during old age (post retirement), at that time you don’t have an employer to cover and none of the medical insurance companies will give offer you a new policy cover since it becomes high risk case due to the age factor. Now what will you do? Put all your savings into medical expenses?? Not a good idea!
Hence it is a must for each one of us to have a personal insurance. You should always choose to first use employer medical insurance and on exhausting the same, use your personal policy in case required.
Have you heard of Super-TopUp medical insurance? New word... so let’s take this up next!
What will happen in case the hospitalisation bill is more than your insurance amount?
What should be the policy sum insured one should buy? A policy for an individual with sum insured of 3L costs around 3-4k per annum, of 5L costs around 6-8k p.a. and rises accordingly...
In case you buy insurance amount of very high sum insured to cover self/family in most cases, you need to shell out a huge sum of money, so what is the solution to this problem?
The solution is Super Top Up Medical Insurance policy.
Let’s understand this:
Super TopUp policy has a threshold amount and a cover amount. The policy gets triggered only when the bill amount is more than the threshold amount and it covers you for the set cover amount. The good part of this policy comes now- the premium of such a policy is almost negligible compared to the basic medical insurance policy.
Let’s understand with an example: Super TopUp policy of threshold of 5L and cover of 15L would mean that it will cover any medical expenses above 5L for next 15L (from 5L to 20L) and this policy for a couple of age range 30-35 will cost less than 2k p.a.
Hence, one should buy a medical insurance for the basic cover and a super top up policy to cover any higher expenses. All major medical insurance companies offer this product.
Few pointers to keep in mind before deciding on the sum insured of these two policies:
1) All medical bills are according to the room one chooses, the same doctor fee in private ward will be more than semi-private ward and further more than general ward and hence the total bill.
2) In most cases room rent allowed in medical insurance policy is 1% of sum insured, so choose your sum insured keeping this in mind.
Note: This 1% of sum insured refers to basic insurance policy, Super TopUp policy has nothing to do with this. Nowadays there are options available that gives you single most economical room as part of medical insurance cover, so that 1% doesn’t come into picture, still do keep a vigilant eye on this while deciding.
3) Medical expenses vary from place to place, example, room rent in Mumbai is very high compared to Dehi NCR, so your primary location too is an important factor.
Hope you now have the requisite knowledge around the medical insurance.
All the very best and make an informed decision!!
Post in your comments for any specific query and I shall be happy to answer.
Most of us have a medical insurance from our employer and hence do not buy a personal medical insurance, let’s take this up first...
Think of a scenario where you are switching from one employer to another and during that gap period you or your family underwent hospitalisation, how will this situation be handled without personal insurance?
Take another important scenario, medical assistance is required most during old age (post retirement), at that time you don’t have an employer to cover and none of the medical insurance companies will give offer you a new policy cover since it becomes high risk case due to the age factor. Now what will you do? Put all your savings into medical expenses?? Not a good idea!
Hence it is a must for each one of us to have a personal insurance. You should always choose to first use employer medical insurance and on exhausting the same, use your personal policy in case required.
Have you heard of Super-TopUp medical insurance? New word... so let’s take this up next!
What will happen in case the hospitalisation bill is more than your insurance amount?
What should be the policy sum insured one should buy? A policy for an individual with sum insured of 3L costs around 3-4k per annum, of 5L costs around 6-8k p.a. and rises accordingly...
In case you buy insurance amount of very high sum insured to cover self/family in most cases, you need to shell out a huge sum of money, so what is the solution to this problem?
The solution is Super Top Up Medical Insurance policy.
Let’s understand this:
Super TopUp policy has a threshold amount and a cover amount. The policy gets triggered only when the bill amount is more than the threshold amount and it covers you for the set cover amount. The good part of this policy comes now- the premium of such a policy is almost negligible compared to the basic medical insurance policy.
Let’s understand with an example: Super TopUp policy of threshold of 5L and cover of 15L would mean that it will cover any medical expenses above 5L for next 15L (from 5L to 20L) and this policy for a couple of age range 30-35 will cost less than 2k p.a.
Hence, one should buy a medical insurance for the basic cover and a super top up policy to cover any higher expenses. All major medical insurance companies offer this product.
Few pointers to keep in mind before deciding on the sum insured of these two policies:
1) All medical bills are according to the room one chooses, the same doctor fee in private ward will be more than semi-private ward and further more than general ward and hence the total bill.
2) In most cases room rent allowed in medical insurance policy is 1% of sum insured, so choose your sum insured keeping this in mind.
Note: This 1% of sum insured refers to basic insurance policy, Super TopUp policy has nothing to do with this. Nowadays there are options available that gives you single most economical room as part of medical insurance cover, so that 1% doesn’t come into picture, still do keep a vigilant eye on this while deciding.
3) Medical expenses vary from place to place, example, room rent in Mumbai is very high compared to Dehi NCR, so your primary location too is an important factor.
Hope you now have the requisite knowledge around the medical insurance.
All the very best and make an informed decision!!
Post in your comments for any specific query and I shall be happy to answer.
Good information.
ReplyDeleteVery informative information, I think this will halp most of the people to choose right medical policy.
ReplyDeleteA basic health insurance policy will usually give you an option to choose for room rent cap waiver for an additional premium payment. That way you can be completely worry free when checking into a medical care facility.
ReplyDelete