Coverage amount in health insurance is no longer set in stone. The new breed of health insurance policies are set to multiply initial covers by 3-7 times in 3-4 years and at the same cost.

One such product was launched by ICICI Lombard. The Elevate Health Insurance policy offers to increase coverage in many ways depending on the need of the policyholder. In a first of its kind add-on, the product offers infinite claim amount for any one claim during the lifetime of policy. For any one claim only, upon the choice of the policyholder, a no limit cover is approved for the policyholder. This can be useful in medical care for cancer, cardiac or other procedures which involve latest technology and high cost. For a family of four, the add-on costs ₹813 per year over the ₹32,500 annual premium for a ₹25 lakh cover.

Elevate Health Insurance also offers an infinite sum insured variant. This add-on transforms the policy to cover any amount for every claim. But on premiums, this is on the higher side, unlike the infinite claim add-on. The add-on will cost ₹8,000 more than the ₹25,700 paid for a ₹1 crore policy for a couple.

There is also a power booster add-on that increases coverage amount every year. With this add-on though, unlike NCB (No claim bonus), a 100 per cent cumulative bonus is added annually whether or not a claim has been made in the year. . The rider though is priced at ₹1,900 over the base price of ₹12,636 for a ₹10 lakh policy for a couple. In the base policy itself, restoration benefit or reset benefit is a standard feature which can triggers unlimited resets of your coverage irrespective of claims.

Similar options

While the Elevate product has elevated the coverage in several ways, the broader health insurance industry has been on the same path.

NCB and restoration benefits have been standard offering across policies. The two features are now getting upgraded as well, especially the former.

Restoration benefit, which restored the claim amount, was restricted to one or two times in a policy year and with limitations on the medical condition. For most policies, only unrelated claims could use the restored amount in the year (medically unrelated to the first claim). Now a few of the policies offer unlimited restoration and for any claim, related or unrelated to previous claims. This standard feature allows financial protection in the rare instance of a second case of medical care needed in a policy term, even if the coverage amount was exhausted in the first claim.

This apart, a lot of heavy lifting to increasing coverage is done with NCB amongst different policies in their latest offerings. Care Health’s Supreme Direct allows coverage to increase by 7x over 5 years with an add-on. Similarly, under Star Health’s Smart Health plan, for an additional ₹732, rider the coverage increases by 50% of sum insured for each claim free year up to a maximum of 600% of the sum insured.

With Niva’s Reassure Bronze plan, policyholders can carry forward unutilized insurance upto a maximum of three times the initial sum assured. Aditya Birla and HDFC Ergo plans on the other hand double the coverage from the first day itself. Additionally, Aditya Birla allows an additional 10 lakhs under NCB  and HDFC Ergo allows for 400 per cent increase in cover in two renewals.

The bottomline

Insurance coverage that starts with 10 lakh cover can easily be doubled or tripled by all these features discussed above by the third or the fourth year. This allows policyholder starting on a conservative coverage to move up to sufficient cover levels over time.

To do so, policyholders only need to have a valid policy with ontime renewals.

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