The Buyt Desk
When your health insurance plan is not sufficient to cover all your health expenses you can go for Top-up and Super top-up plans. Let us understand the difference between them.
An individual buys health insurance so that it helps cover all health expenses and is helpful during medical emergencies by not putting the individual under any financial strain. Insurance is a guard against financial loss. In recent times, the health expenses of an individual have gone very high. Without insurance, it will be very difficult to manage the finances and if it is an emergency situation the family will not know what to do. It is advisable to buy health insurance for everyone in a family. If not individual, go for group health insurance. Sometimes the coverage you have brought may not be sufficient. In such cases buying a second insurance plan is not a good option. Instead, there are instruments like top-up insurance and super top-up insurance to extend your coverage.
What are a Top up Insurance Plan and a Super top-up Insurance Plan?
Top-up health insurance offers additional cover for already existing health plans and for a single claim above the deductible limit. It is like extending the base plan limit. It covers small extra health expenses beyond the base plan during financial strain in the event of medical emergencies. You can go for this plan when you know that the coverage offered by your base plan will not suffice and buying new health insurance is too costly.
Super top-up health insurance offers additional coverage over the base plan to the insured and for multiple claims. Each claim can be dissimilar and need not be for the same illness caused in the past. The claim can be made after each or multiple hospitalizations. The Super top-up plan is initiated only when base coverage is surpassed. Once the deductible is paid it covers the total of all hospitalization bills.
When you know that there may be more than one hospitalization in a year, go for a super top-up plan else go for a top-up plan.
Difference between Top Up and Super Top Up Health Insurance Plans
| Top-up Health Plan | Super Top-up Health Plan | |
| Function | Provides additional coverage only after the deductible amount of one claim has been surpassed. | Provides additional coverage after the total bill (of all the hospitalization) surpasses the threshold limit. |
| Premium | The premium is lesser than super top-up insurance. | The premiums are higher. |
| Working | The principle followed is “per claim” or “per hospitalization.” | The permit of multiple claims. |
| Deductibles | To claim the additional coverage, the deductible amount should be surpassed in every top-up insurance plan. | All claims are reimbursable once the deductible amount surpasses. |
| Coverage of hospitalizations | Only a single hospitalization is covered. | All hospitalizations are covered. |
| Claims | Reimbursement of the claim happens only when the deductible amount is crossed. | All claims are reimbursed once the deductible has surpassed. |
| Lapse of claim | After 1 claim policy lapses. | The policy is active until the entire premium paid is not exhausted. |
| What to choose? | If the insured is not suffering from any chronic illness or a terminal illness, then opt for this. | If the insured’s health is high risk or likely to be hospitalized frequently, then opt for this. |
Summing up
Before choosing anything it is important to check the pre-existing conditions of the policy and choose the deductible amount wisely. When the insured is at the risk of being hospitalized more than once in a year, then a super top-up plan is needed to cover chronic ailments, etc. Go for top-up or the super top-up plan instead of new health insurance as the premium amount is very low for top-up and super top-up plans as compared to any new higher sum insured health insurance.
