Critical Illness or Health Insurance Policy

Have you ever come across a thought to take in some add-on benefits in your already existing health insurance? Especially if you fall under the family floater, well, if your answer is no then think again. What if a family member is diagnosed with some terminal illness that requires special treatment and care?

This is when insurance health plans for critical illness comes into play. A critical health insurance plan acts as an extension to the already existing health insurance.

Balancing Act: 

The major purpose to purchase a critical illness cover is to pay for the cost incurred out of expensive treatments. Plus, it is cheaper than an indemnity plan. For instance, a comprehensive health plan for a 30-year-old with a sum insured of Rs 5 lakh costs around Rs 6,000 a year. A critical illness policy with the same cover costs Rs 1,500 a year.

A critical illness plan is relatively cheaper as opposed to a comprehensive health insurance. As complete health insurance is expected to provide cover to host of medical issues against that of critical illness policy that simply looks into one area.

Experts recommend maintaining a balance between a comprehensive health insurance and critical illness policy, in order to gain benefits in term of pricing and cover.

What to Buy:

Critical illness covers are fixed benefit plans. Therefore, the insured always gets the amount of money assured irrespective of hospitalisation or the expense incurred from the treatment.  However, details vary from plan to plan. For instance, most plans have a survival period clause says the insured must survive for at least 30 days after he or she is diagnosed with any critical illness to file the claim. But this isn’t applied for every plan. So, read the documents carefully before you sign-up for them.