Role of Critical Illness Planning to Prevent Financial Crisis

It doesn't end there- the fight against cancer is inflicted with high treatment costs that have increased substantially in the past few years. Many people spend all their life savings and take up loans to fulfill the cancer treatment costs.

While a health insurance is advised to combat against high health treatment costs, a comprehensive medical insurance against cancer is something you should look at buying.

A general health plan does not cover the cost of medication and hospital bills of a critical illness. A critical illness plan can help you cover the cost of hospitalization and expenses thereafter. Some of its features are mentioned below:

1. Affordable Premium: a decent policy is quite affordable with high cover sum for relatively low premium. For example, a non-smoking 35-year-old male can get a Rs. 10 lakh cover for cancer for a monthly premium of about Rs. 287.A cancer treatment can spread over a few years and it makes sense to buy a policy while you're young because then the policy can run upto 40 years. This ensures that you're insured in all life stages and also reap more benefits from the policy.

2. No sub-limits: A cancer insurance policyprovides the insurance amount on the first diagnosis of illness irrespective of actual amount spent on treatment to help you recover without worries, as opposed to a mediclaim or any reimbursement plan. This also prevents the hassle of applying for a cashless claim or getting reimbursements for what you've already paid, reducing inconvenience.Planning smartly with a specialized insurance can help avoid a situation where the patients get treated at subpar facilities because of lack of funds.

3. You should take a plan that helps you deal with the rising medical costs by increasing the sum assured annually. For example, when you choose a health cover of Rs. 30 Lakhs for Cancer for a term of 10 years and choose the increasing cover benefit, every claim free year adds a 10% to your cover. Hence, by the 5th year, your health cover would have increased to Rs. 45 Lakhs. (10% of 30 Lakhs = 3 Lakhs, 3*5 years = 15 Lakhs increase).