Before getting to know about the critical illness insurance, to know the meaning of critical illness is going to be beneficial. Critical illness is a grave medical condition with debilitating effects on your normal lifestyle. Apart from this, you may need spending a massive amount for treating a critical illness. In some instances, you may even be unable to work resulting in a loss of your regular income. Here, if you own a right type of critical illness plan, it can be beneficial.
You know the number of people who are suffering from critical illnesses is on the constant rise. One crucial factor leading to this increase is the demanding lifestyle and unhealthy habits. The financial influence of being diagnosed with a critical illness could be huge and your regular health insurance policy may fail to be sufficient to cover the same.
Here, if you want to overcome this limitation, you need a critical illness insurance plan. Once you acquire such insurance, you get a lump sum pay out in case you get diagnosed with any of the illnesses covered under the policy. The cash may be used to fulfil your treatment expenses or to pay for your regular monthly expense. It decreases the financial burden while you are getting treated.
What is the Need for critical illness insurance?
A life insurance plan helps you to pay death in case of the policyholder’s demise during the policy duration. Health insurance is an insurance plan that covers the pricing of hospitalization and some other expenses. Both these might not be suitable to cover the financial influence of a critical illness. If there is a critical illness, the benefits of a standard health insurance policy and that of life insurance plan are not really available. Moreover, a critical illness could even leave you incapacitated, which means you may not be in a position to work, which ends up in income loss.
Talking about critical illness plan, these are even known as fixed benefit policies. It means even if you are diagnosed with any of the covered ailments, the insurance company pays the policy benefits regardless of the treatment costs and other related pricings. A few of the commonly covered critical illnesses are like cancer, kidney failure, liver disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, heart attack, and so on.
Essential Factors to Consider when Buying a Critical Insurance Policy
Keep Your Current Situation in Mind
The foremost factor to keep in mind when you are considering the purchase of a critical illness policy, is the specific family structure that you have, your current age and even your dependents, mainly aging parents. If you have senior citizens in your family, it might signal that you require extra coverage for sudden diseases like strokes and so on. With a family that relies on you, a critical illness policy is going to be an extra layer of safety for your loved ones against unprecedented ailments that may impact your finances. Hence pick a critical illness policy that is going to offer you adequate financial aid so that the other requirements of your family do not get compromised with.
Keep the Health Condition in Mind
Your current health might be a deciding factor if you should buy a critical illness policy or simply not. In case you are a habitual smoker, you have a hectic work life with connected stress, you are more susceptible to health problems in the future. Hence, it is always sensible to start early so that there are hardly any hassles to encounter. Being a smoker, however, could even raise your premium slightly. Also, keep in mind the ailments history of your family as you could be susceptible to such similar health challenges down the lane.
Covered illnesses
In case a plan covers more ailments, the premium is also going to be higher. Hence, you need to clearly understand the inclusions and exclusions before you reach out to any decision. Remember, as a lay man, you may not understand complicated medical terms. It is wise you take help of your family doctor to understand the different terms and conditions in the policy document.
Check the Exclusions
Most of the critical illness insurance plans do not really cover pre-existing conditions during the waiting period. Such coverage could be available for a higher premium. Moreover, you should definitely check the medical conditions that are actually excluded from the insurance policy.
Look out for Sub-limits
Insurance companies most of the times levy sub-limits for diverse types of medical conditions. The insurer is going to pay this amount in case you get diagnosed with the particular illness. The sum assured decreases by the sub-limit amount.
Conclusion
So, once you keep all these factors in mind, you surely can pick a Care Health Insurance that is apt for you. After all critical ailments are always a big burden on your pocket and an insurance can be of great assistance in such times.