A Complete Reference: Buying a Critical Illness Insurance Policy

A medical insurance policy with additional coverage for critical illness could be a blessing for if you were diagnosed with a critical illness very recently. Being honest, a bad health is nothing but a curse that makes one’s life miserable. This could be the last thing one would like to wish for in their life.

Critical Illness Insurance - An Overview

You might have an estimate of the coverage your health insurance policy promised you to offer, which many individuals usually don’t. However, you can’t be sure enough about the special coverage your policy has to offer in case a critical illness in detected. A comprehensive health insurance policy along with the additional health coverage by your employer might just not be enough in case you had a stroke or heart attack, or in need of a major organ transplantation, or are diagnosed with cancer, etc.

Simply put, even your comprehensive health insurance policy has a limit on its coverage, such as room rent, doctor’s consultation fee, etc. All you’ll have to do is make the payment out of your own pocket for additional expenses.

Important: A critical illness insurance policy allows you to claim only once; the policy terminates automatically after a claim.

Tips to Buying Critical Illness Insurance

Key Aspects to Look for in a Critical Illness Insurance Policy

It’s prudent to purchase a critical illness insurance policy at the right time. However, you must evaluate a policy before buying it, typically in terms of coverage and extent of coverage. Mentioned below are some key aspects as the checkpoints to look for before paying for a critical illness insurance policy:

Pre-existing Disease - There are plans that offer coverage for a pre-existing disease after a waiting period of 4 years (48 Months), whereas some plans do not cover a pre-existing disease at all. Thus, make sure you check the coverage section in detail before purchasing the policy.
Survival Period - Some insurance policies require the policyholders to survive at least for 30 days before issuing the claim. In this case, the survival period is 30 days while it can be more than 30 days too (subject to policy terms).
Free-look Period - Insurance policies come handy with a free-look period of up to 15 days. During this period a policyholder can submit a request to cancel or return the policy and get a refund after deduction of a certain amount (e. processing fee).
Number of Diseases Covered - While buying a critical illness insurance policy, another key thing you need to check is the number of illnesses it covers. This could be the major decision-making point since different insurers offer different coverage in terms of the number of diseases covered.
Inbuilt Coverage - A critical illness insurance plan it aimed at providing medical as well as financial protection to a policyholder, there are some insurers that offer inbuilt coverage for personal accident, health checkup, hospital cash, and child education benefit to enable to them support their family life.

Choose the Right Sum Assured

It becomes quite difficult for almost anyone to purchase critical illness insurance when they’re not sure about the extent of coverage they may need in the future. The right way to calculate your insurance needs is to combine your present and future needs, as there is no point of spending extra from your pocket when you can choose to add coverage in your insurance policy.

Since the medical treatment costs are increasing at a high pace, it’s prudent to purchase adequate insurance cover and save on the additional expenses.