Understanding Critical Illness Insurance 

Critical illness insurance helps during tough times if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer, heart disease or stroke. It gives you the amount that you can use for medical bills, daily expenses or even time off work. But how much coverage do you really need? Let’s see it in a simple way.

• Look at Your Monthly Expenses

Think about how much money you and your family need every month to live comfortably; this includes rent, groceries, school fees, transport, etc. Multiply that by 12 to 24 months. This will help cover your living costs if you can’t work for a year or two.

• Consider  Medical Costs

Serious illnesses often mean expensive treatments. Think about hospital stays, surgeries, medicines and recovery. In many cases, health insurance may not cover everything. A good critical illness plan fills that gap.

• Think about loans or EMIs 

If you’re paying off a home loan, car loan, or any EMIs, you need to be sure those can still be paid even if you’re sick. Add the total of these amounts to your estimate.

• Plan for a recovery period.

Many people need time to rest and recover after treatment. You might not be able to return to work right away. Plan for at least 6 to 12 months for no income while still covering expenses.

Advantages of Critical Illness Insurance

• Income protection

If you can’t work due to illness, this payout helps you and your family cover living expenses while you recover. Knowing you’re financially prepared in case of serious illness helps you focus on recovery, not on money worries. 

• Affordable Premiums

When bought early, critical illness insurance is often affordable, and you get wide coverage for many major diseases. You can use the money for home care, travel for treatment, and healthy food or pay EMIs.

How the claim works

If you’re diagnosed with an illness covered under your policy

• Submit the medical documents and diagnosis reports. The insurer verifies and approves the claim. You get a lump-sum payout, which you can use however you choose. People with family responsibilities, anyone with loans and EMIs and those with a family history of serious illness get it.
• Check the waiting period; most plans have a 30-90 day wait before claims are valid. Some policies require you to survive a few days after diagnosis to get a payout. Choose a plan that offers lifetime renewability.

Different from other insurance

Critical illness insurance is different from health insurance in the following ways.

• Critical illness insurance gives you a full amount at once when you’re diagnosed with a serious illness. Whereas health insurance usually pays medical bills or pays directly to the hospital for treatment.

• With critical illness insurance, you can use the money for anything like treatment, recovery, paying EMIs, home expenses or even travel, but with health insurance, the money is only for approved medical costs like hospital bills, medicines or surgery. 

• Critical illness insurance covers only specific major diseases like cancer, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, etc., whereas health insurance covers a wide range of illnesses, hospital accidents, etc.

For Insurance, Contact Insurance Horizons

Life is full of surprises. Be ready for anything with insurance that truly cares, whether it’s health. Life or critical illness, we’ve got you covered. We’ve more than 2,200 trusted clients and more than 14 years of experience with +200 team members to meet all your demands. Contact Insurance Horizons today for a better experience.