A Quick Brief of Critical Illness Insurance

Critical illness insurance is designed to safeguard an individual future against the financial strain of medical conditions. Typically, these plans complement most health insurance, providing the insured peace of mind by ensuring they always have the means to cover high medical expenses.

However, individuals must learn every feature, benefit, exclusions, and scope of critical illness insurance plans to make the most of the plan. To give you a headstart, let’s learn about critical illness plans and their scope, in detail below.

What is a Critical Illness Insurance Plan?

This comprehensive insurance policy offers the insured a lump sum amount upon the diagnosis of a critical illness that is covered by the plan. Typically, such a plan covers critical illnesses such as renal failure, cancer, or heart attack. This financial assistance can help the insured alleviate the financial strain of resulting high medical expenses and help them focus more on their recovery.

What are Some Captivating Features of Critical Illness Insurance

These are the key features of the critical illness insurance policy –

• Coverage: The insurance policy extends financial protection to the insured against a range of 36 common critical illnesses, including cancer, renal failure, tumors, and cardiac arrest.
• Lump-sum Payment: Usually the insurance provider extends a lump sum payment to the insured to treat illnesses that are covered under the policy.
• Tax Benefits: Policyholders are entitled to claim tax benefits that are outlined in the Indian Income Tax Act of 1961. For instance, Section 80D of the Indian Income Tax Act enables a tax exemption of a maximum of Rs. 15,000, while the senior citizens in the scheme can claim a tax exemption of a maximum of Rs. 20,000.

Critical Illness Insurance Checklist: How to Pick the Right Policy

Individuals must check and compare the following things before getting a critical insurance policy to ensure they have comprehensive coverage and ample financial security to rely on during medical emergencies –

• Sum Assured: The amount of insurance coverage an individual chooses is vital for selecting the best-suited critical illness insurance for their needs. To elaborate, some critical illnesses require relatively less expensive treatment than most others. So, understanding the insurance coverage needs will help them to make an informed decision about a preferred critical illness coverage. Individuals can easily get critical illness quotes from their choice of insurance company’s website to discover the insurance plan that aligns with their specific needs.
  
• Affordable premiums: Individuals can safeguard their health and finances with any of their preferred critical Illness plans that extend affordable premiums for comprehensive cover against critical illness disorders. This can protect them from the financial burden arising due to high medical expenses resulting from a critical illness.
• Simple claim process: Navigating complex insurance claim processes can be daunting during a time of emergency. That’s why it is vital to pick a policy that follows simple claim procedures to ensure quick, easy, and hassle-free processing, allowing the insured to focus on their recovery without being worried about the claim and expenses. 
• Illnesses covered: Individuals must find out the list of critical illnesses that are covered by the insurance. This is vital because it will help plan their finances for their medical emergency and build contingencies accordingly.  Typically, critical illnesses like cancer up to a certain stage, coma, cardiac arrest, cardiac surgery, etc., are included in the policy.

Besides knowing what is term insurance and its features, individuals should also check the exclusions of the coverage to plan their contingency accordingly.

Exclusions in Most Critical Illness Insurance Plans

While the list of exclusions may vary among plans or insurance providers, the following circumstances are commonly not covered by insurance plans –

• Death within the first month of diagnosis of a critical illness or surgery 
• Illnesses caused due to habits like smoking, alcohol, tobacco, or drug abuse
• Illness due to an external or internal congenital disorder
• If the covered illness is diagnosed during the waiting period

Why You Should Go for a Critical Illness Insurance Policy?

In an era like ours, the value of a critical illness insurance policy has never been more evident. Today’s increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and over-indulgence in bad habits, coupled with rising environmental stressors, have added to a surge in several critical illnesses. Studies consistently indicate a sharp increase in the total number of individuals harmed by these troubling conditions. Moreover, the age when these critical illnesses strike is decreasing rapidly, making individuals, and millennials particularly vulnerable. At a time like this, where stress and unhealthy lifestyle habits prevail, the risk of developing a critical illness like cancer, cardiac disease, and stroke is severe. These concerning conditions impact not just an individual’s health but also their financial stability. However, a critical illness insurance policy can act as a financial safety net during such pressing times.

To understand whether a critical illness plan is suitable for one’s needs or not, one can use an online critical illness calculator. 

How to Use an Online Critical Calculator?

One can easily find out if a critical illness plan is suitable for their requirement by using the tool.

To use the calculator they need to follow these steps –

• Step 1: Look for a reliable critical illness insurance provider website
• Step 2: Navigate to the online calculator page
• Step 3: Enter key details into the calculator
• Step 4: Click on the ‘Calculate’ button

Once all the details are entered they can determine the premium sum insured within a few steps. Since such a tool is available for free online, individuals can readjust the variables into the calculator until they understand how the same impacts the premium and sum insured. They can compare the results and find, which plan is most suitable for their requirements.

That said, a critical illness insurance plan is vital in this age to ensure financial security in the event of a medical emergency. Individuals should pick a plan that suits their requirements and financial standing to ensure their families do not feel the financial strain while paying for their treatment costs. To ensure that one picks suitable insurance coverage, one can use a critical illness cover and find the applicable premium and coverage to make an informed choice.