7 Add-on Covers to Opt with Parents Health Insurance

What about them, then?

This is where you can enhance your health insurance policy with add-on covers or riders. Honestly, in today’s time, it is important to prepare yourself financially to deal with any health emergency.

If you have a health insurance policy for your parents and you think that the existing coverage is not sufficient. Then, it’s time to divulge into the different add-on covers to make your parent’s health insurance plan a full-proof option.

If you want to get additional coverage in your basic health plan or family health insurance plan, then there are several insurance companies that now offer a wide range of add-ons/riders that you can opt for just by paying a nominal extra premium. To know the difference in the premium you can use a senior citizen health insurance premium calculator and save your time.

Add-on benefits are available in all the health insurance for senior citizens in India including government health insurance for senior citizens. Here is the list of the health insurance add-ons that you might be looking for:

Room Rent Waiver

Hospital room rents in a standard health insurance policy have a certain capping. But if you choose a room rent waiver add-on to your health insurance policies, the limit gets increased or there is no limit at all.

So, the concept is simple. A health plan with no room rent capping allows you to avail room rent up to the sum insured limit. Those who are hospitalized in metropolitan cities know that the hospital room rent charges are quite high. And in such cities, a room rent waiver is quite useful.

For instance, let’s say your parents’ standard health insurance plan has a room rent capping of Rs 1500 per night. And when you get admitted to a multi-specialty hospital in Delhi/NCR or other metropolitan cities, this limit will be inadequate. Hence, you get the room rent waiver add-on and get the sub-limit increased to Rs 5000 per night.

Critical Illness Cover

Critical illness is a crucial add-on cover for your parents. We hear about cancer, kidney failure, heart ailments, and all the time on social media and from our near and dear ones. Under this add-on feature, health insurance companies provide a lump-sum amount to the policyholder if he/she is diagnosed with any critical illness, regardless of the cumulative treatment expenses.

Suppose, you have a health insurance policy with a sum insured of Rs 10 lakh. Then you can consider getting a critical illness cover add-on for your parents that offers an additional sum insured up to Rs 20 lakh.

During the policy term, if the insured is diagnosed with cancer, and files a critical illness claim with the insurer, it will pay out lump sum of Rs 20 lakh for the treatment even if the treatment cost is Rs 15 lakh. It means that you can use the remaining amount for other additional charges and miscellaneous expenses. Isn’t that great!

Co-payment Waivers

Most of the senior citizen health plans have a co-payment clause. But one thing that you can do is check with your health insurance provider if there is any add-on benefit that waives of the co-payment clause.  For people above 60-years of age, a co-pay of 20% is most of the time applicable on health claims. And in the case of your parents, this can turn out to be a huge amount if it is a serious illness. Therefore, the third-on your list is waver of co-payment clause.

For example, you have a health insurance policy of Rs 10 lakh, and the claim amount is Rs 5 lakh then you have to pay 20% co-pay i.e. Rs 100,000 from your pocket. But if you have the add-on, the insurer will pay it on your behalf.

OPD Care

For your parents OPD visits are common. But most of the medical insurance plans do not have a provision to cover OPD expenses. While some health insurers provide the option to get OPD cover in the existing plan if you pay an additional amount of premium.  Not every insurer covers it, so you need to check it at the time of policy purchase or renewal.

Reductions in PED

Pre-existing diseases like blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid, heart-ailments, and hypertension are common in our parents. And the waiting period to cover pre-existing diseases can range from 2-4 years. And if your parents get diagnosed with any illness due to a pre-existing medical condition that too before the completion of the waiting period, the insurance policy won’t cover it. Therefore, Reduction in PEDs is an important add-on that you can consider if your insurer provides it.

Personal Accident Cover

The sixth one is Personal Accident Cover. With this add-on benefit, you get insurance protection for accidental damages as well. It basically covers permanent disabilities, partial disability, death, etc.

In case of an accident, the family of the policyholder receives a lump-sum amount from the health insurance company.

Hospital Cash Cover

Hospital daily cash rider benefit helps you with daily cash allowance during your hospitalization period. The insured needs to be hospitalized for more than 24 hours to get the daily allowance benefit.

It can be utilized to meet other expenses like food, conveyance, nearby hotel stay, etc. during hospitalization.

Bottom-line

And during the current pandemic, the demand for an all-inclusive health insurance policy is on a rise. There is one thing that we all want and that is the health protection of our loved ones. With these add-on covers, you can surely achieve that. If you want to get any of the above-listed add-on covers then you can simply check out health insurance for parents on Policybazaar and select the add-on options at the time of policy purchase or renewal.