A regular health care plan might not be able to manage your medical expenses at all times. If you or your family members go through a severe medical complication or life-threatening illness like cancer, heart transplant surgery, or kidney transplant, it would not be possible to cover the entire expenses with a regular health cover plan. In such cases, you need health insurance plans that offer a high sum insured to cover all the costs associated with such illnesses.
In other words critical illness insurance is a type of health insurance that covers major illnesses and medical conditions.
Who needs a critical illness health insurance policy?
A critical illness health insurance policy is for those who have a history of severe medical conditions in their bloodline. A critical illness cover is also recommended for senior citizens as they are prone to severe illness in the later stage of their lives.
However, The unhealthy lifestyle, bad eating habits, lack of proper rest, and stress associated with work are major reasons due to serious medical complications that can arise at a younger age. Therefore, if any of these reasons affect your health, getting a critical illness policy might be the right decision.
Here are some of the essential points we need to discuss critical illness health insurance plans:
Nature of Coverage
A critical health insurance plan offers a lump sum amount whenever you are diagnosed with any disease or medical condition included in the policy. This lump sum is huge enough to cover the entire medical expenses, including room rent, ICU charges, medicine bills, diagnostic tests, and similar costs.
The amount remaining after covering the medical expenses can be used for any other reason that you find appropriate. Therefore, it might also take care of the monetary losses you have suffered during the period.
Health conditions covered by a critical illness policy
- Organ Transplant Surgeries
- Stroke
- Heart attack
- Loss of speech
- Cancer
- Kidney failure
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Major burns
- Deafness
- Bone marrow transplant
- Coma of particular severity
Tax Rebate
The threshold of tax savings is Rs. 25,000 for policyholders below the age of 60. Senior citizens can save taxes up to Rs. 50,000. Therefore, you can also think of a critical illness policy or any other health insurance policy from the perspective of saving taxes.
Annual health check-ups
Most critical health care policies include free annual health check-ups. These check-ups prove vital for detecting a medical condition or ailment in its early days. So the expenses of undertaking such tests have increased exponentially in the past decade.
Exclusions
You must also be aware of the exclusions, i.e. the medical conditions for which a critical medical policy doesn’t provide coverage.
- Any pre-existing illness diagnosed before the critical illness policy is not covered. Some insurers might offer coverage to pre-existing diseases under some conditions. However, the coverage is usually provided after a waiting period.
- Congenital diseases is a conditions that a person suffers from birth, are not covered by a critical illness policy.
- Critical illness plans don’t cover the diseases diagnosed due to birth control treatment or the hormone replacement procedure.
- Critical illness insurance policies don’t cover cosmetic surgeries, sex-change operations, and related treatments or complications arising from them.
- Alternative treatment methods like Homeopathy, Siddha, Ayurveda, etc.
- A critical illness plan does not cover sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, AIDS, etc.
- A critical illness plan does not cover diseases and medical conditions diagnosed due to alcohol consumption, drugs, or other toxins.
There are several such exclusions in a critical illness policy. Moreover, read the policy documents word-by-word to completely grasp the inclusions and exclusions. In addition you should Also compare critical illness policies offered by various insurers before choosing one for yourself or your family members.
To sum up, you should check leading insurance providers’ critical illness policies and regular health insurance plans, visit Bajaj Finserv’s official site. You will find all the information regarding these plans on their website. Meanwhile If you find a critical illness insurance policy tailored to your health care requirements, apply directly from their site without assistance from an insurance agent!
