8 Best Riders That Can Make Your Health Insurance Comprehensive
The acceptance of health insurance policy has increased manifolds due to this lethal COVID-19 pandemic. A comprehensive health insurance policy with an adequate sum insured helps you to deal with all healthcare contingencies, including the COVID-19. Moreover, a health insurance policy permits you to choose the best medical treatment for your ailments without stretching your finances. But a basic health insurance policy may not be sufficient to meet all your thriving healthcare needs. Thus, you need health insurance rider plans or add-on benefits that will successfully meet all your requirements.
What is a rider in your health insurance policy?
A rider is an add-on benefit that you can incorporate into your basic health insurance policy to expand your coverage. A rider will also make your health insurance policy sturdier. Different types of riders are available in the market, and you can choose the best riders to secure your family’s future and health. In simple words, riders are additional toppings on your pizza. By paying additional premiums for your policy, you can avail yourself of the benefits of riders.
Rider benefits availed under the policy
- Room rent waiver
By adopting this type of rider, you can choose any type of room as per your choice without any sub-limit. Most health insurers set a cap on room rent. They offer you coverage for only standard or semi-private rooms once you get hospitalized. But this rider allows you to choose a room of your choice, including private and deluxe rooms. You don’t even need to pay the additional amount from your pocket at the time of discharge.
- Hospital cash benefit
This is the most favorite and common rider that no policyholder wants to miss. This rider offers you a daily cash allowance during hospitalization to take care of hospital-related expenses. Generally, health insurance policies offer from a few hundred rupees to a few thousand rupees to policyholders. By using this rider, you can pay off additional expenses that are not covered by your policy.
- Maternity rider
Though most health insurance policies don’t offer maternity coverage, you can still enhance your coverage and get extensive coverage for expenses incurred during childbirth by opting for this rider. This rider has a waiting period of 2-3 years. If you want to enjoy the benefits of this rider, purchase it as soon as possible so that the waiting period is over when you want to avail of the benefits.
- Critical illness rider
A regular health insurance policy will help you to stay protected against various diseases. But you should purchase a critical illness rider to get coverage for critical ailments. This type of rider embraces you with a lump sum amount once you are diagnosed with a serious ailment, such as cancer or stroke. The lump-sum amount will help you to pay your healthcare expenses related to the disease. You may also use the amount to pay off your debts, children’s education, income replacement, or other family requirements. This rider covers serious health conditions, including heart attack, cancer, stroke, kidney failure, and paralysis.
- Personal accident rider
A personal accident cover also gives you a hefty amount if you experienced an accident that may lead to permanent, total, or partial disability or accidental death. By paying a minimal additional premium amount, you can opt for this rider. You can use this amount for your treatment purposes or utilize it for any other unplanned expenses. This medical aid savings payout rider used to pay the lump sum amount based on the injury or severity of the accident.
- OPD cover
Most health insurance policies compensate you for hospitalization, but they don’t cover the costs of outpatient treatment (OPD) expenses. For OPD treatment, you need to pay for everything from your pocket. If you choose an OPD cover, the policy offers healthcare expenditures that you incur for your OPD treatment.
- Consumables cover
Health insurance policies don’t offer coverage for consumables during hospitalization. Consumables mean medical equipment that you need to abandon after use. Items like gloves, masks, PPE kits, housekeeping substances, surgical stuff, etc., fall under consumable categories. Once hospitalized, a patient needs to bear the costs of all these items. But by opting for consumables coverage benefit, you don’t need to bother about these expenses.
- Medical Inflation protection
These days, healthcare inflation is a burning cause, and it is rising hurriedly in India. The cost of medical treatment is getting more expensive with every passing day. You certainly need a bigger cover in the future than what you have today. Here comes a healthcare inflation protection rider. This rider enhances the sum insured of your health insurance policy by a certain percentage at specific periods.
These are the top 8 riders that make your health insurance policy robust and stronger. The prime purpose of health insurance riders is not to offer coverage for medical conditions and hospitalization but to secure the life of the insured policyholder for untoward situations. Different riders come with different types of benefits. So, in a nutshell, health insurance riders embrace policyholders with better care and coverage at an affordable premium.
