Best tips to look out for affordable health insurance for critical illness 18th October 2022
Critical illness insurance covers serious health conditions that require expensive and long treatment. Such illnesses include cancer, paralysis, stroke, organ transplant, heart attack, coma, etc. The treatment for these illnesses can drain your savings and negatively impact your financial condition.
The recovery is time-consuming, beginning from the detection phase to a myriad of medical tests to surgery and then gradually returning to normalcy. All this will cost us much more than any normal health insurance coverage. This creates the need to have dedicated insurance cover for critical illnesses that are affordable and provide robust protection.
Let us look at the best tips for affordable health insurance plans for critical illness.
1. Comprehensive critical illness insurance policy:
A comprehensive critical illness insurance policy gives us a lump sum amount after we submit the required documents to the insurance company. You can use this sum to pay for the treatment cost, including diagnosis, hospitalisation, any surgery in the process, and the doctor's fees. The sum assured under such policy is fixed. Hence, you can plan your insurance coverage as per your specific needs.
2. Buy it as a rider:
You can buy a critical illness insurance policy as a rider to your existing health insurance policy. Hence you will not need to buy a new insurance policy to get this cover. Also, try to get this additional coverage in the health insurance policy provided by your employer to save money.
3. Low cost:
A critical illness insurance policy does not cost us a very high premium. The premium for such policies is much less than that for your regular health insurance. However, these covers provide us protection only for specific situations. Hence, they should never be used as a substitute for your regular health insurance policies.
4. Compare the premium charged:
Always compare the premium charged for critical illness insurance policies of different companies and select the most affordable one. You can do a detailed online search instead of visiting every insurance company's offices individually.
5. Check for the exact inclusions:
Always check the features and the exact inclusions of the policy because they may vary with every insurance company. Do thorough research and list what the policy does not cover. For example, your policy may state that it covers cancer. But it may also be mentioned in the fine print that it will provide a cover for cancer only after it reaches a certain level of severity.
6. Waiting period:
Look for a policy with the least waiting period. Usually, you can raise a claim for a critical illness after 90 days from the date of commencement of your policy. If you have a pre-existing major disease, the cover may start as late as 48 months from the commencement of the policy.
7. Age limit and benefits:
Always ensure the age limit until your policy provides you with insurance coverage. This will be helpful to you when you cross 60 years of age. There are some companies that provide a lifelong cover. Hence, it is advisable to choose such plans. Also, you should assess the benefits of your policy, such as NCB (No-claim bonus), in case you do not make any claim in a year.
Critical illnesses can result in the loss of your job, partial or permanent disability, and leave you with no source of income. The high cost of treatment can result in draining your pockets as the coverage provided by standard health insurance policies is insufficient for such misfortunes. The solution is to go for the best critical illness insurance policy available. The above tips can help you to choose the most affordable health insurance plans for critical illness upon which you can rely in times of actual need.
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Disclaimer: The information provided above is for illustrative purposes only. To get more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before purchasing a policy.