Source: metrobank

In these times of medical inflation, having a health insurance is an essential financial safeguard to protect you in case of unexpected medical emergencies. However, if you feel that your current health plan has insufficient cover for your needs, you can always opt for an upgrade.

Thus it is recommended that you go through your cover periodically, to see if it still matches your needs and upgrade it as required to match what your current and estimated future costs. Here are some ways that upgrading your policy can be beneficial.

1. A Higher Sum Insured

One of the top reasons to upgrade your health insurance is when you require a higher sum insured. As your healthcare needs increase, you will need a larger amount to deal with these requirements and compensate for health emergencies.

It is advisable to do this upgrade at a young age, as you will be a lower-risk customer and will have lower premiums to pay.

2. More Coverage

Another major reason to upgrade is to get more coverage for your needs. After assessing your healthcare needs and risks, you might feel that your current plan doesn’t cover you for certain instances, such as critical illness, or it has limits like room rent capping that make the coverage insufficient.

Thus, you can opt to invest in an upgraded health insurance that provides sufficient coverage and has fewer restrictions. Additionally, remember to compare the coverage offered by different health insurance plans before you decide to upgrade.

3. You Can Get Covered by Add-Ons

If you already have a health insurance policy with sufficient coverage or sum insured, upgrading your policy can also offer you the chance to get add-on covers. Also known as riders, these covers will offer you further benefits beyond your basic health insurance policy. Common add-ons include a room rent waiver, maternity cover, hospital cash cover, critical illness cover, and personal accident cover.

4. Adding or Removing Family Members

When you have a family health insurance plan, you might need to upgrade your policy to include a newborn baby or remove a deceased family member, or a divorced partner from the plan. You can easily upgrade your health insurance plan to include these changes.

5. You Will Gain More Flexibility

If you’re stuck with a basic health cover with low coverage, upgrading your policy will give you the chance to customize the plan as per your needs. You can choose the sub-limits, co-payments, and deductibles as per your needs. This way, you will have a more flexible option for your healthcare needs.

6. Opt for Cashless Hospitalization

Cashless hospitalization is essential these days, as it can be extremely beneficial, especially during medical emergencies. With this feature, you won’t have to worry about paying the bills out of your own pocket and waiting for reimbursement, as your bills will be settled directly by the insurer. If your policy doesn’t already have this feature, look for an insurer that offers cashless health insurance and also has an extensive list of network hospitals.

7. Adjust Your Deductibles

We have already seen above that when you upgrade your health insurance you will get the chance to adjust your deductibles (as well as other features like co-payments and sub-limits). Generally, the lower the deductible is the higher your premium will be. But this means that you will end up paying more out of pocket at the time of a claim. Thus, it is advisable that when upgrading the cover, you adjust your deductible as per your budget, or even opt for a cover with no deductible at all.

8. Get Lifetime Renewability

In case your current health policy has a cut-off age for renewal, think about upgrading your policy to one that offers lifetime renewability. This means that you don’t need to worry about your health insurance cover stopping when you get older and need it the most. Buying a new policy when you’re older will be a much more expensive option and could cause an inconvenience.

In situations where you feel that the coverage provided by your existing health policy is not sufficient, it might be necessary for you to upgrade your health insurance plan.

There are many reasons why you might wish to upgrade your health insurance, for example, if you require more coverage as you get older, or you have recently had a major life change, such as getting married or having a baby.

Additionally, with the increasing cost of medical care, you might feel that a higher coverage will be helpful for you in the long run. Thus, the best time to upgrade your health insurance is while you are still quite young as the risk of illnesses will also grow with age.

As we have seen above, upgrading your health insurance usually means increasing the cover provided by the policy, so that you have more protection during a medical emergency. There are many ways to do so:

• Upgrade Your Existing Cover – You can choose to upgrade your current plan to get a higher coverage, add more family members, or opt for new add-ons covers. This way you can customize your policy and get more protection.
• Port Your Health Insurance Policy – If you feel that your existing health insurance is insufficient for your needs, you can opt to port your current policy to another plan or another insurer where you might get more coverage.
• Buy an Additional Policy – For those with just an employee health insurance, or a family floater plan, you can opt to get a second health insurance plan. This can include specific plans such as a critical illness cover, or a personal accident cover.
• Get a Top-up Cover – Another additional cover you can purchase to increase your coverage is by getting a top-up or super top-up plans. This way you will have financial coverage even if you finish your original sum insured amount.

So, as we can see upgrading your health insurance can be very beneficial to you in a number of ways. You can get more coverage that will be more sufficient for your current and future needs, greater flexibility, and many other protections. Just remember to compare different health insurance plans before you decide to upgrade.