How to Lower Your Health Insurance Premiums?

Health insurance could be inexpensive if you are aware of how to lower your premium outgo and understand that a low premium does not necessarily mean lower coverage. You can adopt various smart measures to get optimum coverage, while at the same time you need to ensure that the associated premium outgo is not too high.

In recognition of the fact that higher premiums are major obstacles towards people availing higher coverage, insurance companies have come up with top-up and super top-up plans, aimed towards increasing health insurance coverage while limiting the outgoing premium.

Top-Up and Super Top-Up Plans

These plans are like regular health insurance plans with the added benefit of deductibles, wherein the deductible limit functions like a threshold, and claims to the extent of the deductible limit are not payable under the policies.

In case the claim amount exceeds the deductible limit, these plans come into action and the insurer settles the claims accordingly.

Let us assume a top-up plan of Rs. 3 lakhs has a deductible threshold of Rs. 1 lakh. If a claim is made to the tune of Rs. 1.5 lakhs, then the top-up/super top-up plan is triggered and the health insurance company pays the excess Rs. 50,000 to settle the full claim.

Lower Your Health Insurance Premiums

When to Take a Top-Up/Super Top-Up Plan

A top-up or a super top-up plan is a great option if you wish to enhance your existing health insurance policy’s (low) cover without having to shell out higher premium, or if the employer-provided medical/health insurance plan does not have a high cover. Top-up or a super top-up plans boost/supplement low cover policies without pushing up the associated premium.

It is best to keep the deductible limit of your top-up/super top-up plan at par with your existing health plan cover so that the threshold limit can be met by your base health policy and the excess by the top-up/super top-up plan.

How Top-Up Plans Differ From Super Top-Up Plans

Top-up and super top-up plans are not the same. A top-up plan looks at each claim in isolation and tallies each independent claim’s amount against the deductible limit. If any claim surpasses this deductible limit, the top-up plan is triggered.

On the contrary, a super top-up plan considers the aggregate values of all claims made within a policy year and compares this total value against the deductible limit. When the cumulative claims go beyond the threshold limit, the super top-up plan comes into force.

You may also like to Read: How to Plan Your Health Insurance Premiums Well in Advance?

What Should you Choose?

A super top-up plan is a better choice since it takes into account the aggregate value of all claims in a policy year, as a result of which, even smaller and more frequent claims are payable. In case of top-up plans, this is not the case.

Top-up and super top-up plans are smart solutions to up your health insurance policy coverage while keeping your premium outgo at a minimum.