Know about Additional Covers to Strengthen Your Insurance Plan

When it comes to health insurance in India, many people are completely satisfied with the health coverage provided by their employer. They feel that their group health policy is sufficient for them and enough to assist them financially during a medical crisis. But, people forget one thing, that they can avail the employer’s medical cover only till the time they are in their job. The moment they leave their organisation, they become uncovered and vulnerable to the money related troubles due to hefty medical bills during the treatment in a hospital. Therefore, it is a prudent choice to opt for some add-on health covers along with it. Every policyholder can utilise the additional covers to strengthen their insurance scheme: 

• Owning individual health plans - The individual health policies possess much better and beneficial benefits than the group insurance plans. It keeps you insured even when you are not in the job. Also, it emerges as a quite beneficial element when group insurance falls short of providing complete or sufficient financial assistance to the policyholder. In addition to such direct benefit features, the independent policies allow insured members to retain the continuity of advantages, comprising pre-existing ailment cover, etc., from the previous health insurance policy. 
• Indemnity health covers - This segment of health insurance provides insured members with enough freedom to select the hospital, clinic, and doctor of their desire, along with the services they want to avail. Under this section, the insurance firm agrees to pay a fixed portion of the total expenses, which is called a fee-for-service policy. Such additional coverage policies are mostly suggested to the people of more than 45 years of age, which they can continue even after retirement. In this coverage plan, the amount of the sum insured is always high, and the procedure of making a claim is easy and simple to frame. 
• Health insurance top-up plans - In this scenario, when medical expenses are on the surge, the employer health insurance schemes may prove to be an insufficient instrument to cater to the financial crunches at the time of medical emergencies. These additional coverage plans work like a safety vest while swimming. These top-up plans are highly economical methods, which range around Rs 2,000 per year, and comes into force after the exhaustion of the basic policy amount of your existing health plan. 
• Senior citizen health insurance plans - Many employers don’t extend the benefits of their group health plans to be given to employee’s parents, especially if they are senior citizens. But, it is the responsibility of every person to take care of his or her parents. And, purchasing a senior citizen insurance policy is the best way to serve this purpose. Although senior citizen insurance plans come with high-cost premiums, as we are all aware that older people fall ill much more frequently than us, it is considered to be a better choice to opt for.  
• Plan equipped with specific benefits - Regular health insurance plans don’t tend to bear the expenses such as travelling costs of an attendant while you are admitted, food bills and other charges along with the hospital bills. Sometimes, under the regular health plan, the expenses of lifestyle disease treatment, prolonged illness cover, and procedures related to critical ailments are excluded from the health plan. Here, a Defined Benefit Plan can evolve as a saviour, which gives the financial support in terms of a pre-defined cost either in lump-sum or on a daily basis. 

Wrapping Up!  
The above-discussed top-up plans can help policyholders at a time when they can’t bear additional expenses and are unable to pay from their pocket. The health insurance policy of the employer can bring economical coverage but can’t supersede the benefits of an individual health scheme. But, the plans like a senior citizen plan, indemnity cover, defined benefit plan and so on, fill the void with significant financial assistance. Adding them to your group health plan enables the insured members to avail the benefits of long term treatments, doctors and hospitals of choice, etc., without investing much. So, let these additional benefits cover your back today and safeguard you from shelling out an excessive amount of money tomorrow.  

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