Critical Illness Insurance

Ever growing stress in our lives coupled with rich diet and lack of exercise is resulting in increased chances of being trapped in a critical illness even if our family history is good.

The technological advancement in the world has made the chances of survival from a life altering illness very high.

Survival does not mean recovering in a day and getting back to work with no impact on our finances. The road to recovery is long and most of the times requires not only the one affected by the illness but also the spouse to quit / reduce work. We need money to come in at that time to support the climbing medicine bills and on going expenses. Without any financial help at that time , there might be increased stress of going back to work which might lead to worsening of the illness rather than recovery.

A critical illness policy pays a lump sum on the diagnosis of a named illness such as Heart Attack, Cancer, Stroke, Kidney Failure, Coronary Artery Bypass surgery, Benign Brain Tumor, Deafness, Blindness, Paralysis, Loss of Limbs, Major Organ Transplant, Major Organ Failure (on waiting list) Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Loss of Speech, Coma, and Severe Burns. The money is paid if a person survives 30 days after the diagnosis. If not, life insurance policy claim kicks in if you have one and most critical illness policies refund premium paid.

There might be one or two extra conditions covered in the product of one company as compared to another but the definitions of each illness are standardized throughout the industry.

Similar to life insurance, this policy also had wide choices ranging from Term 10, 20 , Term to 75 or Permanent. We could also add premium refund options. There is a choice of pay to 100 or 15 pay in permanent products offered by many companies.

The key here is to have a policy, even if you have taken a Term 10 today, it is upgradable into a permanent product later on. The younger you buy it the better it is since the insurance requires you to be medically very fit at the time of issue. It is hard to get this insurance if you have already got some health issues.

There are certain guaranteed issue products also but they come with exclusions which are not a part of a standard critical illness policy.

Some companies are also offering critical illness and life insurance policy bundled in one which leads to saving of few dollars due to one policy fee being charged for both products combined in one.