A medical emergency can occur anytime without any prior warning. It may be challenging for you to cope with the emotional stress in such a situation. But, if you have health insurance coverage, you can breathe easy knowing that you can cover the expenses and provide the best possible treatment to your loved ones.

Imagine a situation where you don’t have health insurance or the coverage of your existing policy is not enough to cover entire expense, forcing you to pay the amount from your pocket. This could potentially mean depleting your years of hard-earned savings.

You can avoid such a crisis with a top-up health insurance plan. Let us know more about it.

What is top up health insurance?

As the name suggests, top up health insurance is an additional coverage offered by insurance companies to help the policyholders cover the expenses when the bills exceed the maximum coverage limit.

Let us understand the working of top up health insurance with the help of an example.

Let us say, Miss. PriyaSaraf has a health insurance policy of ₹5 lakhs and pays a premium of ₹6000 annually. However, two months after buying the policy, Miss Saraf feels that she needs a higher coverage, say of ₹8 lakhs.

So, instead of increasing the coverage of her existing policy, which would mean she has to pay an additional premium of ₹4000 per year, she purchases a top-up plan for ₹3 lakhs, for which she has to pay a premium of ₹1000 or top-up of every 1 lakh. Thus, she annually saves a premium of ₹1000.

In a nutshell, top up health insurance acts as a supplement to your existing health insurance policy.

Buying a top up health insurance plan is a cost-effective way to get additional financial coverage during an emergency. You can purchase a top up plan with your individual health insurance and family floater policy.

Many insurance buyers confuse a top up plan with a rider. However, these plans are only indemnity schemes that offer regular coverage.

Let us look at some of the features and benefits of top up health insurance plans.

• Even if the sum assured of your current health insurance policy gets exhausted while filing a claim, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the top-up plan will cover the remaining amount.
• You can easily enhance the policy coverage by purchasing a top-up plan during renewal.
• You can buy top up health insurance even if you don’t have basic medical insurance.
• You can convert top-up health insurance plans to a basic healthcare policy.
• Like a regular policy, the insurance companies do not have any restriction on the number of times you can file a claim during the policy period. You will get protection up to the maximum limit of your top-up plan.
• If you have only a top up health insurance policy, you can get coverage against common expenses like doctor consultation fees, room fees, bed charges, diagnostic tests, medicines, etc.
• All insurance companies offer a free look-in period of 15 days. If you are not happy with the plan or the insurer’s services, you can surrender the policy and get a full refund.
• Generally, insurance companies do not need top up health insurance buyers up to a specific age to undergo a medical test. However, you can voluntarily take a medical examination.

Final Word

A top up health insurance policy is a bridge between your regular health insurance policy and a medical emergency. It helps you enhance the coverage limit at an affordable cost.