What are Health Insurance Riders and Their Relevance

Health Insurance Rider

Rider in Health Insurance
Relevance of a Health Insurance Rider

Understanding the significance of riders for health insurance and knowing why they are relevant in India.

We already understand the invaluable place health insurance holds in each of our lives. Without a health insurance plan in place, we can fall helpless in times of medical emergencies, which often come unannounced. With a mediclaim policy, we can be rest assured that we don’t end up burning a hole in our pocket with one single hospitalization, when required. While comprehensive health insurance largely covers nearly all of the expenses incurred during a hospital stay, sometimes, additional benefits are required to enhance the coverage of your plan.

The riders for health insurance therefore enter the picture, offering add-on benefits to the policyholder, which enhance the insurance coverage of the base plan. These riders definitely come at an extra cost to the policyholder; however, the benefits they provide are surely worth the price. Here we discuss in detail what health insurance riders are and what is their relevance in the Indian health insurance industry.

What is a Rider in Health Insurance?

The health insurance rider definition in a medi-claim plan refers to an add-on benefit that can be attached to your base health insurance policy. This means that the rider needs to be purchased separately, over and above the base policy, in order to further increase the coverage of the health insurance policy. These add-on benefit riders come at an extra cost to the policyholder in terms of the total premium payable.

Relevance of a Health Insurance Rider

We pay a certain amount of premium towards the maintenance of a health insurance policy. And now if someone asks us to pay an additional amount to avail the benefit of an add-on rider, it doesn’t always come easy for everyone to accept such a proposal. Hence, we discuss here the actual importance or relevance of a health care rider in our country to help you make a wise and informed decision when it comes to buying health insurance rider benefits.

In order to discuss the relevance of health insurance riders, let us look at the different types available at the moment and how each of them is important to our health insurance:

- Personal Accident Waiver Rider: As the name suggests, this benefit is designed to cover the monetary losses incurred in an accident that happened during the term of the policy. The insured may suffer some other losses as well, such as complete disability, permanent partial disability, or even death due to accident. In such unfortunate cases, a monetary benefit for the family of the insured can be added to the base insurance plan at a minimal cost under the personal accident waiver. The accident rider health insurance would cover all medical expenditure on the treatment of accidental injury or any disability caused due to the accident. In the unfortunate demise of the insured during the accident, a monetary death benefit, twice the amount stated in the health plan, would be given to the family of the insured.
- Hospital Cash Rider: This is one of the widely chosen rider benefits in health insurance plans. This is because it helps the insured and their family cover the daily cash requirement in case of emergency hospitalization. All everyday medical expenses at the hospital during the stay of the insured are covered by the insurer as part of this rider benefit. The total daily cash is paid to the policyholder upon completion of the policy term. The insured can then use the amount for the specified number of days as stated in the health insurance policy.
- Critical Illness Rider: What is Critical Illness Rider in health insurance? This add-on benefit would help you cover all medical expenditure incurred during any serious or life-threatening disease. A few examples include heart attack, kidney failure, cancer, lung disease, and the like. The Critical Illness Rider is generally not a part of the basic health insurance plan and needs to be purchased as an add-on benefit by the policyholder. The latter then receives a lump sum amount under the rider benefit. This amount is regardless of the total expenditure done as part of the critical illness treatment. Make sure to check with your insurer the list of critical diseases covered under the rider before purchase.
- Maternity Rider: As is evident from the name, the Maternity Rider benefit is designed to offer monetary benefits to the insured during maternity and childbirth. However, note that this rider benefit can be availed by the insured only after the completion of the waiting period. In some cases, this could be more than 2 years, based on the plan chosen by the policyholder. Some insurers also provide maternity rider benefits for the child after their birth until the maturity of the policy term. Make sure to check with the insurance company what benefits they offer under the maternity rider coverage before opting for one.
- Room Rent Waiver Rider: This benefit is highly preferred by most policyholders since it allows them to choose a hospital room of their choice during the time of admission. This is irrespective of the fixed room rent demanded by the hospital for different types of rooms – general, semi-private or private rooms. With this rider, the policyholder can opt for any room without the need to pay any extra admission fee. Moreover, the flexibility to choose a higher sub-limit or no limit plan is also available as part of the room rent waiver rider.

Summing Up

We learned in the blog what an optional rider is for health insurance. It is termed optional because the policyholder is free to choose these riders over and above the base health insurance plan already purchased. Though optional and available at a slightly additional cost, the riders for health insurance are worth every penny spent. They help enhance the coverage of your mediclaim policy, offering financial protection at a time when it is most needed. To know more about all the available riders for health insurance and the various health insurance plans, visit PayBima.

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