Is Buying Riders essential with Insurance base cover?

March 2, 2015 Finance Talk Valli Sarvani No comments

Basic health insurance policies are a must these days for everyone. A minimum of Rs.3 lakh to Rs.5 lakhs is essential for individuals especially for senior citizen. In case of family floater plan Rs.5 lakh to Rs.8 lakh is required if the eldest member of the family is below 45 years age to meet the financial needs sufficiently.
But, basic health insurance policies are not enough to meet the incidental expenses or to cover a critical illness, disability or major accidents. To meet these medical emergencies, riders are essential to add to the basic health insurance policies. Though these riders are available as standalone policies, they are more expensive. For instance, one has to pay Rs.600 to Rs.750 for a personal accident policy with a sum assured of Rs.3 lakh. On the other hand, the personal accident rider for the same sum assured will cost only Rs.563.
So, adding riders to base insurance policies can be cheaper than normal policies. Furthermore, they protect against specific risks. One can buy several riders on one base policies as per his/her needs. But, many people do not buy these riders due to lack of awareness.
Before buying riders one has note the following things:
Critical illness riders can be added to life or health insurance policy which is very beneficial in the event of loss of income due to critical illness. Experts suggest the standalone policy for critical illness is better due to its wide range of cover for ailments. Policy holders should also check the survival clause before buying this.
Accident rider should cover four causalities associated with accident. They are: Death, permanent disability, permanent partial disability and temporary total disability.
Hospital cash policies help pay medical and non-medical expenditure of the policy holders while their stay in hospital. Room rent waiver rider enables the policy holders a higher sub-limit rooms. Surgical benefit riders are beneficial in the event of surgeries that cover almost all surgeries which ranges from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.10 lakhs.
Waiver of premium rider is helpful for those who have small children.

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