Cancer Insurance

Cancer is a dreadful disease in which the body suffers unregulated cell division and growth. There are over 200 types of cancers. The leading type of cancer among men is lung cancer and among women is breast cancer. Cancer is spreading throughout the world at an ever-increasing pace. As a matter of fact, cancer stands tall as one of the leading causes of death worldwide. This figure is likely to continue rising in the coming years. India is no exception to the increasing cancer prevalence. Cancer care is quite a costly affair whether it's the diagnosis, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or surgery. More often than not, cancer ends up financially draining out the sufferer and his/her family. The bad news is, there's no way, and you can buy a new insurance plan with cancer as a pre-existing condition. That's what makes getting a health insurance plan for cancer patients’ one hell of a job.

The good news is, you are not alone. We know how stressful it is to be diagnosed with cancer but let us tell you, it's not the end of the world, there's always hope. Owing to high-quality health care, the survival rate in cancer patients has gone up. If insured under the right health plan, a cancer patient can set off on his way to recovery and expect to live a normal life again.

Critical Illness Cover for Cancer Patients

Though cancer is covered in most of the critical illness policies here's the catch, the pre-requisite of coverage under a critical illness cover is that it is given to those who are yet not diagnosed with cancer. If you are already a cancer patient, you will be denied the coverage not just on cancer but also on the complications arising due to cancer.

Further, for most of the critical illness plans, if any symptom relevant to cancer occurs within 90 days of commencement of the policy, it will lead to the termination of the cover. Even if you are diagnosed after this waiting period, your critical illness cover will not pay out your claim until your cancer is in the advanced stage (critical illness does not cover cancer which is still at its early stage).

Critical Illness cover can be bought as an individual plan or as a rider with your life insurance or health insurance plan.

Cancer Specialist Insurance Policy

As mentioned above, a critical illness cover fails to meet the specific insurance needs of cancer patients. Moreover, when it comes to giving a normal health cover to cancer patients, most of the insurers pull away from their hands. The reason is obvious, giving a cover to such patients proves to be a lose-lose proposition for them.

In such a scenario, the only option left, is to get a cancer specialist health plan. A cancer care policy is designed to meet the specific insurance needs of a cancer patient. However, the pre-requisite for getting insured remains the same even here, the patients who have a pre-existing cancer condition will not be covered under a cancer specialist policy.

A cancer care specialist policy ideally covers you against cancer, both at the early and advanced stages. Unfortunately, there are not many insurers committed to offering this kind of cover to the needed.

List of Cancer Insurance Plans Available 

	ICICI Cancer Care Plus	National Insurance + CPAA Cancer Insurance Policy	National Insurance + ICS Cancer Insurance Policy
Eligibility	For anyone aged between 20 and 60 yrs who is not suffering from pre-existing cancer	For members of Cancer Patients Aid Association who are not suffering from pre-existing cancer	For members of Indian Cancer Society who are not suffering from pre-existing cancer
Entry-Exit Age	20 yrs – 60 yrs (renewable up to 70 yrs)	Not given	Up to 70 yrs
Sum Assured	Rs. 5 Lakh-Rs. 25 Lakh	Rs. 30,000-Rs. 5 Lakh	Rs. 50,000 or Rs. 2 Lakh
Policy Term	10 years	1 year	1 year
Premium	For a typical 10 Lakh cover - 4,604 to 8,945 (for men)   8,602 to 14,845 (for women) Minimum single premium - 1,200 per annum	Rs. 2,400 to Rs. 8,000	Rs. 496 (for Rs. 50,000 cover) Rs. 1,157 (For Rs. 2 Lakh cover)
Waiting Period	For Early Cancer - 12 months from the risk commencement date For Advanced Cancer -   6 months from the risk commencement date   Should be able to survive for 28 days from the date of diagnosis	Should be able to survive for 30 days from the date of diagnosis	Should be able to survive for 30 days from the date of diagnosis

Disclaimer: The ranking of the insurance companies in this content is not in any particular order. The list is not complied as per the IRDA ranking.

ICICI Cancer Care Plus

Cancer Care Plus is a comprehensive health plan that covers most forms of cancer at both early and advanced stages. Cancer Care Plus offers some unique benefits to the insured.

• Diagnosis tests performed free of cost once in every 2 years for the early detection of cancer
• Cash payouts for diagnosis, treatment and surgery
• The coverage is independent (over and above) of other medical covers the insured already had
• In case of diagnosis of advanced cancer, the future premium is waived off
• The claim procedure is smooth and easy as no medical bills are required to be presented

National Insurance + CPAA Cancer Insurance Policy

CPAA (Cancer Patients Aid Association) joined hands with National Insurance to work towards fighting cancer and lend the much needed helping hand to the cancer patients.

The policy is available to individuals who do not have a medical history of cancer. To ensure this, the insured needs to get through a pre-medical screening to get covered under this plan. The good thing is that the costs of these tests are borne by the insurance company.

There's one glitch to Cancer Insurance Policy. The maximum policy term for this plan is 1 year and if the patient avails a claim in that year, he will not be issued a policy next year. So, the claim will be paid out just once. The policy will not be eligible for renewal once the insured makes a claim.

National Insurance + ICS Cancer Insurance Policy

Indian Cancer Society along with National Insurance launched Cancer Insurance Policy for giving out financial aid to the sufferers. This beneficial plan is nothing less than a boon to get covered against the dreads of cancer. Cancer Insurance policy is surprisingly affordable and offers the insured a gamut of features.

• No pre-medical test required. The insured needs to submit a doctor approved good health declaration.
• Up to 2 dependent children can be covered for Rs 50,000 each
• The insured gets to enjoy a 5% additional sum insured for every claim free year
• Provides coverage to the member as well as his/her spouse
• Quarterly reimbursement of claims will be made for expenses incurred on biopsy, diagnosis, hospitalization, surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and rehabilitation
• Check up will be free the first Subsequently, 50% of the cost will be charged.
• The insured needs not to interact with National Insurance, the policy is managed by Indian Cancer Society. Even the premium payment and claim settlement will be dealt with by ICS

We would also like to mention Health Swastham, a healthcare package offered by Health Impetus which is a renowned healthcare organization based in Mumbai. Health Swastham gets you discounts on health expenditures. But what makes this package relevant to cancer patients, is that it offers insurance covers to those cancer patients who are denied coverage from insurance companies because of their pre-existing condition.

A wise man once said 'prevention is better than cure'. This quote very well applies to cancer and its dreads. The most viable cure to cancer is curing it before it happens. Adopting a healthy lifestyle, being proactive and getting an early detection, while the cancer is its preliminary stage, saves the patient from incurring heavy costs on its treatment.