5 Important Riders You Must Add to Your Health Insurance Policy

What is a Rider in Health Insurance?

A rider is essentially an add-on feature that can be included in your already existing basic health insurance plan at a very affordable cost. Sometimes the health insurance plans that we purchase may not be able to cover additional costs incurred on health care.

For instance, some policies fail to cover maternity costs or death by accident costs in their scope of benefits. Instead of then buying a completely new health insurance policy to accommodate those costs, it’s easier and economical to simply add a rider to your existing plan.

This would now make your policy comprehensive and extend the coverage area. Besides, by adding riders, you can custom-design your health insurance to suit your individual healthcare needs. What’s more, these riders can be added at a very nominal price too.

Top 5 Riders that are a Must-Add to Your Health Insurance Policy

1. Critical Illness Rider in Term Plan or Health Insurance

Let’s first understand what is critical illness rider in health insurance. As the name suggests, this additional feature allows the insured to avail cost benefits from the insurer in case of a critical illness or disease that generally requires prolonged treatment. Some examples include heart conditions such as heart attack, multiple sclerosis, tumor, cancer, or organ transplant.

The benefit of buying this rider with your health insurance plan is that you become entitled to receiving a lump sum amount or an assured sum from the insurer in case you’re unfortunately diagnosed with a critical illness. Moreover, one major benefit of critical illness rider in health insurance is that the sum assured is irrespective of the actual total cost involved in the treatment of the said illness. You can easily purchase a critical illness rider in conjunction with your term insurance or health insurance policy.

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2. Maternity Cover Rider

A number of health insurance plans in India fail to cover maternity costs for the policyholder. However, it cannot be denied that the total expenditure incurred during delivery can be quite a burden on the pocket. This is where buying a maternity cover rider with your health insurance plan comes in handy. It would help cover the costs involved in childbirth. Some insurance plans provide restricted coverage for pregnancy and post-delivery costs, so you may want to check with your insurer before purchasing the rider.

3. Hospital Cash Rider

This rider can be particularly helpful in case of emergency hospitalization. Daily expenses incurred during hospital stay can be quite a sum and so this rider can help cover all those costs by providing everyday cash allowances and other benefits to the policyholder for healthcare expenditure incurred during hospital stay. Also, in case intensive care was required for the patient (such as in the case of ICU), cash benefits would be offered only if the patient was hospitalized for more than 24 hours.

4.Personal Accident Rider

Accidents can involve huge expenditures too. In case of an unfortunate death by accident of the policyholder, his/her family is eligible to receive twice the amount as stated under the rider in the health insurance policy. In case of any temporary or permanent disability caused due to the accident, all expenses incurred can be covered by purchasing this rider.

"5. Room Rent Waiver Rider 

This is another helpful add-on that allows you to get a room of your choice during hospital stay without worrying about any room rent cap from your insurer. This rider helps do away with room rent capping so that you can have a comfortable stay during hospitalization. It is of great use to patients living in metropolitan cities where hospital room rents can be quite high.     

The importance of riders in insurance cannot be undervalued. They allow common man to earn access to high-quality treatments and make healthcare services affordable to all.