Health insurance riders vs add-ons - Know the difference, which one to add to your mediclaim policy depending on your medical needs
health insurance online, just before making the final payment, you are presented with an array of ‘riders’ and ‘add-ons’ that can be tagged on for an extra amount. These include a wide variety of benefits, including hospital cash or consumables, no-claim bonus, OPD care, room rent waiver, maternity benefit, health check-up and restoration of sum insured, among several others.
Budget with ET
What India Inc needs in Budget to drive growth amid global challenges
Budget 2025-26 needs to focus on capex, infrastructure spending: RBI MPC member Nagesh Kumar
Space sector seeks PLI scheme, tax holidays, more use of satellite data
Even as you debate the distinction between ‘riders’ and ‘add-ons’, a more keen dilemma is whether to spend on features that seem either too enticing or downright unnecessary. To add to the confusion, every health insurer offers a different set of riders/add-ons for every plan, with varying prices. Should you opt for these features? After all, the insurer could just have added these to the base plan. If you do plan to buy, when does it make sense to pick one, and should you opt for a rider or an add-on?
Riders vs add-ons
While both riders and add-ons enhance coverage, the former is an extra benefit added to the policy, while the latter is a separate cover tagged to the base plan. “Riders are more affordable and offer limited customisation, while add-ons are purchased separately from the base policy, are slightly more expensive than riders, and cover niche needs,” says Siddharth Singhal, Business Head, Health Insurance, Policybazaar.com.
