Critical Illnesses Covered Under Health Insurance

Know the basics of a critical illness health insurance plan?

The successful treatment of a critical ailment can make a difference between life and death. A critical illness insurance plan can act as a vanguard against heavy costs associated with the treatment of certain life-threatening diseases.

Critical illness has the potential to cause mental stress, emotional trauma and financial disaster in a person’s life. While an ordinary health insurance plan offers coverage for most of the healthcare-related costs, it still might prove to be inadequate and fail to cover the prolonged and recurring expenses associated with the treatment of certain critical illnesses such as cancer, stroke, kidney failure etc. This is where a critical illness cover can come to your rescue.

Distinguishing features of critical illness health insurance

A critical illness insurance plan, being a fixed benefit plan, works over and above the standard indemnity-based health insurance policy. You can claim the benefits of your regular health insurance plan and the critical illness insurance simultaneously. A claim made under the critical illness policy is disbursed once the policyholder outlives the survival period specified in the policy.

One of the distinguishing features of a critical illness plan is that usually has a waiting period of 30 days, unlike 60-90 days for a normal health insurance policy. Moreover, a critical illness plan is renewable for the lifetime. However, the policy gets terminated once you have made a claim and utilised the entire sum assured.

Common inclusions of critical illness health insurance

Here are some of the most common health conditions that are unanimously included under the critical illness plan by most of the health insurance providers:

Kidney failures

Cancer of specified severity

Cardiovascular diseases including myocardial infections

Multiple sclerosis with persisting symptoms

Major organ transplantation

Apart from providing you a cushion against the depletion of your savings in case you’re diagnosed with one of the above-mentioned life-threatening diseases, a critical illness cover also offers certain tax benefits u/s 80 D of The Income Tax Act, 1961.

Moreover, these are fixed benefits plan which means that you will be provided with a sum assured upon the diagnosis of a critical illness specified in the policy. This amount can be used for varying purposes, including hospitalisation, medication, post-hospitalisation expenses and any lifestyle changes.

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