Health insurance riders are like ‘multivitamins added to your regular meals’ — they fortify and boost your basic health insurance plan and make it more ‘fit’.

A basic health insurance plan simply makes up for the actual medical expense that you would incur during a hospitalisation, which includes room rent, boarding expenses, nursing, intensive care unit, drugs and consumables, diagnostic procedures, surgery, etc. Medical emergency can catch one unaware and the damage can be greater than assumed — medically and otherwise! The actual expenses incurred at the time of a medical necessity may be much magnified.

The unnoticed losses/costs are far more than expected. Basic health insurance policies may not cover expenses related to recovery phase like extensive nursing care, counseling sessions, rehabilitation or physio-therapies, follow up medical investigations and diagnostic tests , any aids or purchases like ergonomic furniture, dietary supplements, BP monitoring tool, glucometers, etc. You may face added financial crisis like loss of income during the illness phase, a running liability like a home/car/personal loan, etc. Opting for health insurance riders with your base plan definitely provide insulation to such costs. Some of the offered riders in health insurance are:

Critical illness rider:

This rider provides a lump sum benefit amount on first diagnosis after a 30 day survival period for any one of the listed illnesses covered under the plan.

Hospital cash:

This rider pays a fixed amount ranging from Rs 500 per day to Rs 2,500 per day in case of a hospitalisation. If one is monitored in an ICU, the benefit doubles. This can be utilised for miscellaneous expenses that may occur during the hospital stay.

Maternity:

Maternity is typically excluded in the basic health policy. This rider pays for expenses related to child birth, both for normal and C-section. It also pays for any medical termination of pregnancy, pre-natal and post-natal expenses and new born expenses related to hospitalisation.

Out patient dental:

This rider reimburses costs related to medically necessary dental treatments.

Contact lenses, hearing aid, spectacles rider:

This rider reimburses for costs related to purchase of such medically prescribed and necessary aids.

Convalescence costs:

For extended periods of hospitalisations typically more than 10 continuous days, a lump sum amount is paid as an add-on to the base cover.

Accidental death:

Besides medical emergency, this rider covers the accidental risks to life.

Accidental disability:

This offers protection against losses occurring due to partial/ total or temporary/permanent disability arising out of accidents. Burns, broken bones, costs for last rites, etc, are also covered under this plan. Top up cover supplements the existing health policy, insuring a person for a larger sum insured limit at lower cost. A top up policy comes into play when the sum insured in the current policy is exhausted.

(The writer is the member of executive management and head – HR, marketing and strategy planning at HDFC Ergo General Insurance)