5 Profitable Benefits Of Critical Illness Insurance You Must Know
Critical illnesses scare everyone. Especially the ones who have lost their loved one(s). But if you are lucky, then you probably might not have met any critical illness and have never used critical illness insurance to protect yourself from such illnesses. In the event of a big medical emergency, for instance, cancer or stroke, a critical illness policy could be the only thing that can protect you from financial ruin.
Many may be assuming that they don’t need a critical illness policy as they’re already protected under a regular health insurance policy. But, your regular health insurance plans won’t always offer you comprehensive coverage for the treatment of life-threatening illnesses with exorbitant costs. Therefore, you need a relevant critical illness insurance cover that takes care of you and your dear ones against critical illnesses.
Read along to know the benefits Of Critical Illness Insurance.
What Is A Critical Illness Policy?
Critical illness policy is an insurance product that covers the insured against life-threatening diseases like renal failure, cancer, stroke, kidney failure, heart attack, and so on. The policy works on a simple principle, I .e.the insurance company provides a pre-decided cash payment in a lump sum if you get diagnosed with any of the critical illness or surgery that the policy provides cover for.
List Of Diseases Cover Under Critical illness policy
- Cancer
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Benign Brain Tumor
- End-stage liver disease
- Paralysis
- Coma
- Total blindness
- Cardiac Arrest
- Heart valve replacement or repair
- End-stage renal disease
- Primary Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
- Major organ transplantation
- Aorta Graft Surgery
- Parkinson’s disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Kidney failure
- Stroke
- Heart attack
Critical illness policy is different from a regular individual health insurance policy. It only covers critical illnesses and pays the insured in a lump sum., Individual health insurance covers other injuries and diseases as well. It covers expenses as incurred. It is important to learn that a critical illness policy gets ceased once the benefits are paid out whereas a regular health insurance policy continues to offer coverage until policy renewal.
Advantages of Critical Illness Insurance Policy
To understand critical illness plans better, look at the advantages listed below:
- Acts as an income replacement: Critical illness insurance plans pay the insured in a lump sum at the time of diagnosis. It is not necessary that the lump sum amount has to be used to pay for medical bills only. As an insured, you can use this amount to pay household expenses, loan EMI, your children’s school fees, or even to pay for further treatment abroad. In short, the amount acts as an income replacement and therefore can be used in a way you want.
- Low cost of policy: A major thing that makes critical illness insurance appealing is that they don’t cost much. The plans only cover treatment expenses related to critical illnesses and hence, the premium is set to be low in comparison to standard health insurance plans. So, it is better to go for a critical illness policy in case you are not looking to include other benefits. Thus, you can pay less premiums.
- Easy claim process: Unlike standard health insurance plans, hospitalization is not necessary to avail benefits under a critical illness policy. The insurance company may even pay the insurer on the basis of diagnosis reports itself. This makes the claim process easy and hassle-free.
- Lesser waiting period: In most cases under a critical illness policy, the waiting period is of 3 months. You can start availing benefits under the policy after the waiting period. It is usually more under standard health insurance policies when it comes to pre-existing diseases.
- Tax benefits: In addition to numerous benefits that critical illness plans offer, these policies also come with the additional perk of tax benefits. This means, on buying a critical illness policy, you can avail tax benefits on the premium paid under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961. If you are aged less than 60 years, then you can enjoy tax savings for up to Rs. 25,000. Similarly, if you are aged above 60 years (if you are a senior citizen), you can enjoy tax savings for up to Rs. 50,000.
Go for it!
It would be wrong if we say that critical illness policies are not less than modern-day superheroes. And in times like today when our lifestyle itself is the cause of most life-threatening diseases, owing a critical illness policy becomes a must.
So, if you think you are too vulnerable to critical illnesses too, then don’t worry because InsuranceDekho has got your back! It helps you shortlist the best health insurance plans online and gets you protected against a number of illnesses/diseases/injuries.
