Is it customary for you to renew your health insurance policy around this time of year? Is it that time of year when you start thinking about next year's medical insurance policy? If this is the case, why not take advantage of the opportunity to review the scope of policy coverage?
Inflation raises the cost of medical bills, rendering the old policy insufficient if the quantity of your insurance cover was barely adequate when you initially purchased it.
Assume someone purchased a medical insurance policy with a 5 lakh coverage three years ago. At the time, a 5 lakh payment might have sufficed for him/her. However, the situation has changed recently. Have they not?
Inflation has risen, the insured has aged three years, and her income has maybe increased, allowing her to pay a greater premium. When all of these aspects are taken into account, it is possible to consider expanding the insurance coverage. And if you are thinking of doing so, keep the following points in mind:
If you want to increase your insurance coverage, keep the following considerations in mind:
1. Increase the policy size: Given inflation and your increasing age, you should consider increasing the insurance coverage. For example, if your policy provides coverage of 5 lakh and you believe you should increase it to 8 lakh, you are probably thinking along the right lines. A small premium outlay will help you broaden your safety net.
2. Critical illness insurance: This is available as a rider or as a separate policy. It can come in handy if the policyholder is diagnosed with a catastrophic sickness. So, if you don't want to expand your medical insurance coverage, you can get a critical illness plan as an add-on.
3. Super top-up plan: Another option for widening your safety net is to purchase a super top-up plan, which kicks in when the regular policy's limit is reached.
4. No-claims bonus: Most insurers provide a no-claims bonus (NCB), which effectively broadens coverage. So, if the no-claims bonus has significantly increased your insurance coverage, you may not feel the need to increase 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.
