In views of the growing medical costs, it is — undoubtedly — imperative to increase the sum assured of your medical insurance policy year after year. Those policyholders who bought their insurance policy four to five years ago should make sure that the sum assured of their policy is in tune with growing inflation and rising medical costs.
There are several ways to expand your sum assured. These include the following:
5 ways to expand your sum assured
1. Buying extra riders: Most insurers offer extra riders such as room rent waiver and critical illness rider which can come handy when the need arises. For instance, when a policyholder takes a critical illness cover, s/he is given the sum no sooner than the disease is diagnosed.
This, naturally, is easy on the pocket without having to pay a higher premium for a bigger sum assured.
2. Claiming no claims bonus: When you don’t use a medical insurance policy for a number of years, you become entitled to no-claims bonus (NCB) that keeps adding to your total sum assured. One does not need to do anything different to become eligible for that. This is an extra benefit given by many insurers which the policyholder should apprise himself/herself of.
3. Buying long-term policy: Insurance policy providers usually offer a discount on premium when a policy is bought for long period. For instance, when a policy is bought for three years then the premium per year is lower than what is paid when bought separately for each of those years.
4. Explore other insurers: One could even explore the idea of transferring the insurance policy from one insurer to another when you feel your premium is on a higher side for the sum assured. However, one should make sure that you don’t opt for an insurer with poor track record or sub-standard quality of service merely to save a few bucks.
5. Top-up plan: The top-up plan comes handy when the original plan amount gets exhausted. In the top-up plan, you become entitled to receive the amount that you spend over and above the coverage limit.
It kicks in when the amount of basic insurance gets exhausted, and you had to pay for the balance out of your pocket.
It is, however, vital to remember that these are some of the ways to avail a wider cover while keeping the premium within affordable range. But if you still fall short of the necessary sum needed to keep yourself safe and protected from unanticipated medical costs, then it is recommended to cough up extra money in premium and go for a bigger insurance cover.
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Published: 19 Jan 2024, 02:07 PM IST
