You have finally bought a term insurance plan to secure your family's future in case something happens to you. You have also covered the entire family with a comprehensive health plan to take care of their medical expenses. But have you prepared yourself for the worst?
Imagine a life where you are completely dependent on others and are no longer capable of providing financial or emotional support to your family. This is what Ashok Garg and his family went through. Garg was diagnosed with mouth cancer two months after his daughter's wedding. The already debt-ridden family was not prepared for the expensive cancer treatment. The mediclaim policy did not cover the pre-hospitalisation treatment including the chemotherapy sessions which ran into lakhs. His family w ..
A mediclaim policy is limited to hospitalisation expenses while a disease-specific health insurance plan, such as a cancer insurance plan, provides a cover beyond in-patient hospitalisation. But even then, the average health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh may not always help. Cost of cancer treatment in India can go up to Rs 20 lakh in some cases. Though, it would depend on the type of cancer and the concerned hospital. Unlike other diseases, cancer treatment can take few months to many years. The ..
Critical illness, like cancer, is not only a threat to one's earning capacity but it can also throw you into a debt trap. A healthy lifestyle and preventive health checkups may help you to some extent but it cannot make you completely immune. With our changing lifestyles, increasing use of preservatives, rising air pollution levels are collectively taking us closer to the evil called cancer.
But there is a way to make at least our finances immune to the disease. Looking at the exponential rate of cancer, many insurance companies have come up with cancer insurance policies.
If you think cancer insurance is only for those who are prone to such ailments, you may be wrong. India is likely to have over 17.3 lakh new cases of cancer and over 8.8 lakh deaths by 2020, as per projections by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Among females, breast cancer is the most common, while mouth cancer is found more among males, according to a 2016 study by the medical research body.
The cancer survival rate in India is among the lowest in the world and this is mainly due to the fact that early diagnosis and optimal treatment is still a distant reality for majority of us. Cancer diagnosed at an early stage may not always kill but advanced medical facilities will surely burn a hole in your pocket. More so because of the rarity of targeted cancer drugs.
This makes it more than necessary to buy dedicated insurance plans for life-threatening diseases like cancer. Term insurance plans launched recently offer riders which would mean the premium would be waived off in case the insured is diagnosed with a critical illness disease but the cover will continue till death.
Why choose critical illness plans
Most people don't think it is important to have cancer insurance because they are under the assumption that their existing health insurance will be sufficient. But a comprehensive health insurance policy may not be able to cover the high cost burden of cancer treatment. A cancer insurance policy is a step ahead and provides high cover for a relatively low premium.
As opposed to a mediclaim or any reimbursement plan, cancer plans provide the insurance amount on diagnosis of illness irrespective of the actual amount spent on treatment to help you recover without worrying too much about the bills.
Cancer-dedicated plans can be a substitute for the loss of income if you need to take a break from your work because of the illness. Some of the cancer policies are:
