Demand for super top-up health insurance plans rises after Covid

Demand for super top-up plans in health insurance has increased significantly post the Covid-19 pandemic, owing to a rise in medical costs and increased insurance awareness in the country, industry insiders have said.

- AATHIRA VARIER

According to data from Policybazaar, the share of super top-up in health insurance has increased from 10.5 per cent of health insurance premiums in the financial year 2018-2019 (FY19) to 34.6 per cent in the financial year 2023-2024 (FY24).

A super top-up health insurance plan pays the policyholder for medical expenses that exceed the coverage limit of their base health insurance policy. It is similar to a top-up health insurance plan, but provides for one or more claims cumulatively crossing the threshold limit.

"They (super top-up plans) did exist pre-Covid as well. But the uptake was obviously much less. Two things have happened since the first Covid wave hit. One, medical costs have gone up. Every year, medical inflation is 14 per cent. So by default, medical treatment costs have gone up. Secondly, prior to Covid-19, nobody would have thought that the bills can be very large and most of the policies had around ₹5 lakh as a coverage, which is grossly inadequate," said Siddharth Singhal, business head, Health Insurance, PolicyBazaar.