Health insurance is one of the biggest requirements of modern-day lives. You cannot risk living without medical coverage, as diseases, lifestyle disorders, and even pandemics have become so common nowadays.
Once you have opted for a health insurance plan, most of your hospitalisation expenses can be taken care of by the same, and that too, cashless! So, after the initial waiting period of 30 days, you can get coverage for all seasonal illnesses such as dengue, malaria, typhoid, Covid-19, etc.
However, opting for just any policy won't help. To get the best health insurance benefits, you need the best mediclaim policy along with some riders. Riders are add-on covers that you can attach to the basic health plan. Riders help to increase the scope of the cover. This apart, they offer many additional benefits too.
Also Read: 8 Common Health Insurance Terms Decoded
Advantages of Health Insurance Riders
Health insurance riders bring forth many benefits to your medical insurance coverage. Here are some of them:
Helps to Increase the Scope of Cover
As mentioned above, the health insurance riders help to increase the scope of the medical insurance coverage. Every rider includes an additional aspect.
For Example:
When you choose a critical illness cover as a rider along with your existing plan, you get added coverage for a disease like cancer. This helps you to cover the different features of your health at a low cost without opting for a completely new plan.
Helps to Cover Maternity Costs
Almost every family sees the birth of a baby. However, maternity expenses are not covered in a lot of health insurance policies. This is why you should opt for a maternity insurance rider and ensure the happiest moment of your life is safe and free of any financial hassle.
So, if you plan for a family, the entire cost from conceiving to check-ups to delivery would be covered in the plan along with first-year vaccinations for the newborn as well!
Helps to Clear Loans and Debts
Many of the health insurance riders, such as the critical illness rider, offer a lump sum payout. You can use this money in any way you wish.
So, god forbid, if you are diagnosed with a terminal ailment, you have the option to clear the debts and ensure your family doesn't fall into any financial trouble. This is where a Term Rider comes in handy!
Also Read: 11 point check-list for things to do AFTER Buying Health Insurance
Helps to Create a Corpus for the Kids
Similarly, you can use the sum assured to create a corpus for your kid's education to ensure they get the best in life even after your demise.
Accidental Benefits
You can opt for accidental death, disability and dismemberment benefits through a rider.
So, if you happen to meet with an accident and get disabled or lose a limb, etc. then a proportionate amount of the sum insured would be paid for the same.
Waives off the Premium
The waiver of premium riders is one of the best and most beneficial health insurance riders.
If you happen to suffer from a disability due to an accident or a critical illness, the future premiums will be waived off while the cover will continue to stay in place.
Daily Cash on Hospitalisation
There are many expenses that are not covered in your hospital bill, such as expenses for the attendant, consumables, etc. which results in a high out-of-pocket expense.
This is where a hospital cash rider could come in handy wherein a fixed amount of money would be paid, over and above the hospitalisation bill, subject to a minimum number of days of hospitalisation!
OPD Benefits
Doctor checkups, dental and eyes are not covered under any regular health plan unless it is directly attributable to an accident. With OPD benefit rider, all these costs would be payable.
Helps in Additional Tax Saving
You get a tax-saving health insurance plan benefit when you buy riders. Tax benefits are already available on the health insurance premium you pay under section 80D upto Rs 25,000 per annum.
But when you pay an extra premium amount for the riders, the tax benefits apply to the entire amount of additional premium paid. Hence, the tax money you save is greater and this proves to be very profitable for you.
Also Read: How to get Term & Health Insurance Tax Benefits?
Lower Marginal Cost
The base policy may not be enough to cover your health insurance requirements. At such a time, you may have to look at getting a new plan.
However, doing so will result in you having to undergo pre-policy health tests, seeing off the waiting period, etc. You can steer clear of these hassles by continuing with your existing policy and simply getting some riders with it.
These are the best benefits you get when you add some riders to your health insurance plan.
The final word
Your health insurance premium will go up when you add riders to be base policy. However, the extra payment is totally worth it, as is understood from the points mentioned above. Go ahead and explore the riders and see which ones meet your requirements. Inform your insurance provider and get them added to your health insurance policy right away!
Also Read: Importance of Getting a Rider in Your Health Insurance
