New Delhi: The current COVID-19 situation has made people understand the importance of having a health insurance cover which they can rely on in case of a medical emergency the likes of one happening now. There are a lot of people who often buy a health insurance cover just for the sake of claiming tax deduction. The plan has a low premium and does not offer much coverage.

However, this can be problematic right now as despite having an insurance cover, you might have to pay a lot of money for hospitalisation and treatment since the plan does not offer good coverage. If you already have a health insurance plan, but you feel the coverage may not be enough in case of hospitalisation, you can boost your cover by either upgrading your base policy to the one with higher sum insured or by simply buying a top-up over your existing base policy.

Upgrading the existing policy could be expensive, but a top-up plan will come at a cheaper premium. By just paying a couple of thousands extra, you can have a top-up of up to Rs 10-20 lakh in addition to the sum insured on your base policy. For example, if you have a base policy of Rs 5 lakh sum insured, your total health cover will amount to Rs 15-25 lakh with an additional top-up. 

Here’s everything you need to know about top-up plans:

A top-up plan supplements the base health insurance plan by providing additional coverage above the sum assured available. In case of a top-up plan there is a deductible, which is the initial claim amount that is not covered under the policy. The claim amounts that crosses the deductible is paid under a top-up plan. There are two kinds of top-up plans – standard and super top-up plans. 

1 Standard top-up plan: A standard top-up plan is applicable when the claim is higher than the deductible. Deductible is the minimum amount that either your base health insurance plan will cover or you will have to pay it from your own pocket. For instance, if a top-up plan of Rs 10 lakh has a deductible of Rs 5 lakh, it means on a hospital bill of say Rs 10 lakh, Rs 5 lakh will be paid by you, and the rest Rs 5 lakh will be paid from the top-up plan. 

2. Super top-up: A super top-up plan considers aggregate deductibles for a year meaning in case of a super top-up plan, if more than one claim occurs in the policy period, all of them will be counted towards the deductible. Super top-up plan is generally more expensive than a standard top-up plan. The super top-up plans have a deductible limit same as the sum insured on your base cover. However, you have to exhaust it only once in a year to trigger super top-up plan.

Who should go for top-up plans:

Ideally, the sum insured on your base health insurance policy should depend on the average cost of hospitalisation in the city where you stay. However, if you already have a health plan with a lower sum insured and upgrading it to the higher sum insured is not financially feasible, then top-up plans will come handy, especially if you have a family floater policy covering multiple family members. People who only have a mediclaim from their employer can also buy top-up plans to boost their total health coverage.