Health plans more beneficial than critical illness policies?
We are all well-aware of those critical illness covers that encompass a myriad of diseases. In addition to those already existing plans, a new set of health plans have come up to offer protection from deadly ailments. Since these plans cover the insured from a particular disease, we now can stay safe from fatal ailments such as cancer by availing these policies. However, are these plans better than regular critical illness covers? Critical Illness Cover for cancer patients These policies are crafted to safeguard a set of critical diseases and cancer is included among the bunch of ailments that are covered under the plan. However, there are a few reasons why cancer patients have found these policies falling short of meeting their needs. Here are some downsides of critical illness policies that are compelling cancer patients to look for cancer-specific health plans. • Only those who are not diagnosed with cancer can avail a critical illness policy. Cancer patients are not eligible for this plan. • The policy does not cover complications that usually arise from cancer. • Critical illness plans of those people will be terminated who has symptoms of cancer within the waiting period of the policy. In simple words, if any symptom reveals within first 90 days which is the stipulated waiting period in most policies the plan will cease to exist. • Those who are diagnosed with cancer even when the waiting period is over will not be able to make claims till the ailment reaches advanced stage. Because, no critical illness plan covers early stage cancer. Comparison of different critical illness plans Here is a comparison of various critical illness policies. The comparison is made from the perspective of a 35 years old healthy person who wants a critical illness plan with sum insured Rs. 10 lakh.
There are 9 plans available in total and all plans come with 90 days of waiting period. The premium amount varies between Rs. 3,300 and Rs. 5,000 for 8 out of those 9 plans. Only the plan offered by Star Health comes with a hopping Rs.16, 405 without any significant benefit for cancer patients. None of the other plan offers any great benefit for policy holders as well except Assure -1000k offered by Religare. Insured people are entitled for free health check-up and e-option under this plan. The premium of this plan is Rs. 4,501. None of the 8 other plans provide policy holders with such benefits. Individuals need to keep in mind all these critical illness plans on offer are provided by insurers that belong to general insurance sector. A critical illness plan acts like an umbrella that protects the insurers from a range of deadly diseases. One can buy these critical illness covers can be as individual policies or as riders along with your life or health insurance policies. But, these policies come with many restrictions. Policy buyers can avail standalone cancer policies as a safeguard from cancer. Specific insurance products to cover cancer Among all the ailments that have come under the shield of disease-specific covers, cancer is the deadliest of all. Every year, at least 10 lakh new cases of cancer are detected in India and six lakh die of it. A niche health cover for cancer aims to meet the particular requirements of cancer sufferers. These plans are equally effective both at advanced and early stages. But, the criteria for availing such a plan is the same as they are for regular covers. People with pre-existing cancer are not elegeble for such cancer specific policies. [Source:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wJ82Rbsg38DnBrtoBobinkzpWLccDeNmwmSm9bLu Cmk/edit]