Critical Illness Insurance: Vital but under appreciated.

I have health Insurance. Is that not enough?

With the rising health care costs it is now well established that you will have some sort of health insurance; either on your own or provided by your employer. If you are one of those who is happy in the knowledge that your health costs are covered completely you may be in for some surprise.

Who pays for out of hospital costs and loss of Income?

While the typical health insurance policy covers hospitalization costs, there may be significant costs that you may have to incur before you get back to work.  Beyond these costs there may be loss of income while you are recovering.  For the typical salaried person these costs add you very quickly.  You may think that there is very little likely hood of extended period of recuperation. Think again. One out of three Indians will suffer from a critical illness like Cancer, Heart attack, Kidney Failure. In event of such an illness, there will be costs involved that will go well beyond what your regular hospitalization policy will provide.

Enter Critical Illness Insurance Policy

There is a way to get protection or at least compensation in event you are stuck by a critical illness. A critical illness policy provides you with a lump sum Amount in the event that you suffer from one of the listed critical illness. The six most common Critical Illnesses are:

1.       First Heart Attack

2.       Stroke (Cardio Vascular Accident or CVA)

3.       Cancer

4.       Kidney Failure

5.       Major Organ Transplant

6.       Heart By-pass Surgery

Some critical illness policy pay upon diagnosis of the illness. Some of them require you to survive a period of days (typically about 30 days) after diagnosis for payment.

Here is a table of the Best Critical illness policies in India for a male aged 35 for a Sum Insured of 10 lakhs.

Insurer	Annual Premium	Payment Criteria
Bajaj Allianz	3,000	30 days after Diagnosis
Max Bupa	3,089	30 days after Diagnosis
HDFC	3,371	30 days after Diagnosis
Chola	5,698	Upon Diagnosis
Reliance	3,075	30-60 days depending on the illness.
Tata-AIG	8,892	Upon Diagnosis

You can see that policies that pay upon diagnosis are expensive but in my opinion they are worth it.  Also undertake a detailed comparison of Critical Illness Insurance Policies before you buy. Check out all the conditions covered and the policy terms.

Amit Kumar