ManipalCigna Health Insurance launches a 'super top-up' plan; should you buy?

The technological advancement in medical science has made it possible to get successful treatment of many medical conditions that were earlier thought to be incurable. However, this often comes at a significant cost. It will work only if you can afford it. Health insurance is a good option to fund the much-needed finance, but most of the people tend to have a basic health plan of just Rs 2-5 lakh sum assured, which becomes inadequate if you need costly treatment.

Super top-up plans offer a solution as they come up with higher sum assured at lower premium but with some deductible amount that you will have to bear on your own. Any expense over and above the deductible amount is paid by the insurer.  Many people use their corporate health policy or personal basic health policy to pay the deductible amount.

ManipalCigna Health Insurance Company Limited on Wednesday announced the launch of  ManipalCigna super top-up health insurance plan. It will provide a health cover upto Rs 30 lakh of sum insured. This plan covers both Allopathic and AYUSH in-patient treatments up to sum insured and also offers protection against medical inflation through guaranteed cumulative bonus.

Speaking about the product launch, Prasun Sikdar, Managing Director and CEO, ManipalCigna Health Insurance Company Limited said, "With healthcare costs on the rise, the existing health insurance cover may not be adequate and buying a health insurance cover with a large sum insured may not be affordable. Thus, to ensure that quality healthcare remains accessible and affordable to our customers in the long-term, we have launched our easy on pocket 'super top-up' health insurance plan to deliver enhanced safety net of coverage and to take care of the rising health care cost, so that more people will be able to enjoy a more secure future."

With the super top-up plan, the company covers healthcare up to 60 days before and up to 90 days after hospitalisation. It covers the medical expenses for the treatment or surgery that requires less than 24 hours of hospitalisation. It also covers non-medical expenses and donor expenses, as incurred by the organ donor for undergoing organ transplant surgery.

The plan comes with varied sum insured and deductible options to choose from. It also offers a family discount of 10 per cent for covering two and more family members under the same individual policy. It also offers discounts if you pay premium for two years or more. There is an additional online renewal discount of 3 per cent per annum from first renewal onwards if the premium is received through NACH or Standing Instruction (where payment is made either by direct debit of bank account or credit card).

The plan has a provision for guaranteed additional sum insured as bonus at the time of renewal, irrespective of claims in the expiring policy. The cumulative bonus will accumulate maximum up to 50 per cent of sum insured.

Should you buy?

The best way to have good health protection is to have a base plan that has higher coverage. However, that may not be affordable for everybody. With super top-up plans, you may enhance your health protection cover at a lower premium. Based on your family health history and sum assured requirement, this plan is worth considering if you get a good cover at low price.

However, you must compare it with other insurers as many insurers offer such plans. While comparing the plan you should make sure that you check the exclusion list, waiting period for pre-existing disease, assured renewability, presence in terms of number network hospitals covered in your area and other features. For example, this policy covers AYUSH expenses. In case you have a corporate health plan for the family as basic cover, then you may use this plan to increase the cover. If you have an old health plan with low sum assured and are looking to enhance the coverage, it makes senses to just buy a super top-up plan instead of going for a new plan.

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