Cost of Cancer treatment can leave your finances in mess.

A million new cases of cancer are reported every year in India. The number of cases is rising every year as a result of lifestyle changes, and increased risk factors like tobacco use, drinking and air pollution. Most common cancers in India are oral, breast, cervical, lungs, and colon cancer.

Millions of our countrymen are grappling with high cost of cancer treatment that are wiping out entire life savings and in many cases forcing people to borrow. The high cost of cancer treatment are a result of high cost of treatment equipment and drugs. Basic Radiation therapy equipment costs around Rs. 10 crore, a PET CT scan machine can cost anywhere from 4-6 crores and a CyberKnife used for radiotherapy which costs around Rs 30 crore. Add all this up and cost of setting up a 100 bed cancer hospital can run up to Rs 100 crores. Hospitals recover these costs from patients. Then there is the cost of drugs and treatment. Cancer drugs don’t come cheap. Targeted cancer treatment drugs are prohibitively expensive.

Type of Cancer	Targeted Drugs	Treatment cost
Breast Cancer	Herceptin	Rs. 75000 per course. Up to 15 course may be needed.
Colon, kidney, lung and gall bladder cancer	Avastin	Rs 80,000 to 1 Lakh per cycle. Patients may need upto 7 cycles
Colon and Rectal Cancer	Erbitux	Rs 1 Lakh per cycle. Patients may need upto 7 cycles
All Types of Cancer	Chemotherapy	Each session from Rs 10000 – 90,000. May need about 4 sessions

If the cancer is in advanced stages then costs will be much higher. Specialty cancer hospitals are very few and in addition to treatment costs, the patients and their often have to come from outside town to avail of the treatment. The costs of transportation, food and lodging can easily add another 50% to these costs. It is no surprise that 25% of all patients give up these treatment midway.

Most of the government schemes don’t cover cancer treatment and the general medical insurance policy wouldn’t be enough to cover all the costs. One option to cover for these kind of illnesses is a critical illness policy. A typical critical illness policy for 10L for a 40 year old would cost Rs 6000-8000 per year. A 20 L policy would cost about 12000-15000 per year.

Less than 10% of the people in the country have medical health insurance and still fewer have critical illness polices. These policies will pay a lumpsum equal to sum insured if the insured survives 30-90 days after detection of the cancer. It is well worth protection yourselves by buying one of these policies and avoiding financial ruin. Hope that you never have to use one but it is a great protection if ever you need it.

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

All you need to know about Critical Illness Covers

A critical Illness is a life threatening disease that disables you from performing your normal occupation. Various studies have revealed that the incidence of Critical Illnesses have increased manifold. Reasons are many, and these include stress, a sedentary lifestyle, junk food, lack of physical exercise and so on. Nevertheless the fact is that along with the incidence rates, also increasing are the costs of treatment. It makes eminent sense to purchase a Critical Illness (CI) cover from an Insurance Company.

Which Illnesses are Critical:

In India, Critical Illness covers are sold as stand-alone policies by General Insurance companies and as add-on covers (riders) by Life Insurance companies. This means that if you wish to buy a CI cover from a life company, you must have an existing life policy with them.  Most companies (Life or General) cover at least the top 6 Critical Illnesses:

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

Several companies cover more illnesses in varying numbers, even up to 12. They add Alzheimer’s, Burns, specific forms of cancer and so on. Premiums increase based on the number of illnesses covered. While you are the best judge for your requirements, our view is that the first 6 are enough.

Lump sum or Accelerated:

 CI covers are usually fixed benefit covers which means that they pay out a fixed amount on diagnosis, irrespective of the actual expenditure incurred. General Insurance companies follow the lump sum mechanism. However life companies tend to divide CI riders into 2 types:

Lump sum CI Rider: This is the normal mechanism, where on diagnosis, the fixed cover amount is paid out.

Accelerated CI Rider: Under this method, the fixed cover amount is paid out as above, however this amount is reduced from the total life cover on death or maturity.

For example:

Let us have a life policy of 100,000 life cover with a CI rider of 50,000.

·         On the diagnosis of a CI, if you have a lump sum rider, you will immediately be paid Rs 50000. The CI rider is extinguished, the policy continues as usual, and on death or maturity, 100000 will be paid out.

·         On the other hand, if you have an accelerated rider, you will immediately be paid Rs 50000. The CI rider is extinguished, the policy continues as usual, and on death or maturity, the balance 50,000 will be paid out.

It is obvious that Accelerated CI riders are cheaper.

Our View:

We prefer comprehensive coverage hence would advise buying a CI policy from a General Insurance Company or a lump sum CI rider from a Life Insurance Company.

To know which one is best for you, log onto www.policylitmus.com to find comparisons of over 1000+ products from 50 insurance companies.

Policylitmus