What are the Benefits of Health Insurance Riders?
We live in a highly competitive world. With speed becoming the defining aspect of our lives, we barely have time to take care of our healthwell-being. While many of us try to eat healthilyexercise, our overall lifestyle has become unhealthy. This has resulted in various diseasesillnesses surrounding us.
Over the last two decades, the cost of medical treatments has skyrocketed. This has made a health insurance policy a necessary investment. However, while health insurance plans take care of most of the hospitalisation expenses, there are many ancillary costs that the basic plans don’t cover.
Hence, many insurers offer add-ons or riders that you can use to customise the planscreate a policy that suits your requirements perfectly.
This article will discuss the benefits of riders in health insurance policies.
Table of Contents
Benefits of Riders In Health Insurance Plans
Here are the top rider benefits in health insurance policies:
Increases the scope of health insurance policy
Every rider is created to cover a specific medical cost. For example, if you buy a maternity cover after the defined waiting period, all medical costs associated with maternity will be covered by the insurer. Hence, you can cover these costs without looking for another cover or bear the expenses yourself.
Critical Illness Assistance
Most health insurers offer critical illness riders where the sum insured is transferred to you if you are diagnosed with the illness covered by the plan. For example, if you opt for a cancer riderare unfortunately diagnosed with cancer, the insurer transfers the sum insured to your account. You are free to use these funds as you please. This can help you clear any pending loans or debts so that your family does not get into any financial trouble in your absence.
Coverage For Accidents
Health insurers also offer various riders to protect you if you encounter an unfortunate accident. These riders pay the policyholder full or part of the sum insured if you were to get disabled or lose a limb in an accident.
Premium Waivers
You can also opt for a Waiver of Premium rider that waives off future premiums if the policyholder was to get disabled due to an illness or accident. However, while the premiums are waived, the cover stays in place.
Hospital Cash
When a person is admitted to a hospital, there are many expenses apart from those covered under a medical insurance policy like consumables, attendant costs, etc. While these costs are small, they can add up to a sizeable sum. With a hospital cash rider, you can get a fixed amount every day. This will be overabove the hospitalisation costsis usually offered after a minimum number of days of hospitalisation.
Out-Patient Department (Opd) Costs
Most health insurance policies do not cover costs associated with regular check-upsdental or eye-related treatments unless they are a result of an accident. The OPD rider ensures that all these costs are reimbursed.
Additional Tax Saving
Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961, allows people to claim tax deductions of up to ₹25000 per year on the premium paid on health insurance policies. The additional premium paid for the riders is also eligible for a tax deduction. Hence, health insurance tax benefits allow you can save more tax.
If you have medical insurance in India but feel that it is not offering adequate coverage, then you can opt for another health insurance plan. However, this will mean paying two premiumsgoing through the hassle of medical check-ups,not filing a claim during the waiting period. You can also look at the riders in health insurance offered by the insureruse them to increase the scope of the policy. This will be cost-efficientsave you a lot of hassle.
Summing Up
Remember, riders are available at a cost. Therefore, including riders in your health insurance policy would mean a higher premium. While this added cost is worth the money, it is important to ensure that you choose the riders carefully. We usually recommend people assess the medical history of all the people covered under the policyestimate the kind of medical treatment they might require in the future.
For example, if there is a history of cancer in a family, opting for a cancer critical illness rider makes sense. Once you know what you need from the policy, explore the marketlook at the plans offered by different insurers.
Compare featurespremiumschoose the best option. In the current pandemic, you can also look at corona insurance plans to manage costs if any family member gets infected. Medical costs can burn a hole in your pockets. Ensure that you have a comprehensive health insurance policy to protect youyour loved ones.