How to choose the best critical illness cover in India

Day in and day out almost one out of every four Indians fall prey for death due to non-communicable diseases such as cardio-vascular ailments or cancer, that too before they turn 70 years old. Life-style diseases have become too common and therefore, a healthy diet along with a routine aligned with physical activities or exercises is imperative. These would be one way of keeping diseases at bay. This is because, life threatening diseases may just swipe off your finances and put you in debt. Having a health insurance policy or a family health insurance plan would be useful. However, considering the number of critical illnesses arising these days, it is important that you buy a critical illness health insurance without any further procrastination.
 

You can choose the best critical illness plan basis the below mentioned criteria:

1. Age of the insured and Renewability of the plan: There are few insurance companies that doesn’t allow insurance renewability age post 50 years. Once you cross this age limit, you won’t be able to renew your insurance plan. But, there are certain insurance companies that offer an excellent benefit of lifetime renewability.

The best thing that senior citizens could do is avail a critical illness insurance plan that offers coverage a wide spectrum of illnesses as their health plans usually have a lower sum insured at a higher premium rate.

2. It is a rider or simply a Stand-Alone health policy: You can avail a critical illness health insurance plan in two ways. The first option would be buying a stand-alone policy which means buying a separate insurance plan that does not interfere with your pre-existing general health insurance plan. The second option is to attach a Critical Illness rider or an add-on with your existing health or life insurance plan.

Experts mention that buying a stand-alone policy would be more flexible than a rider or an add-on since it offers a larger scope for insurance cover. The sum insured that a rider offers is lower than that of the base health or life policy. Therefore, a stand-alone critical illness plan would fetch you a higher premium than a critical illness rider.

3. Waiting period for pre-existing conditions: Every insurance company has a waiting period to cover the pre-existing diseases. This waiting period may be of 2 to 3 years. In short, any claim wouldn’t be considered during this period. It makes sense to opt for an insurance plan that offers a less waiting period.

4. What’s covered and what’s not: It is important to check the inclusions and exclusions of the critical illness cover before buying. You will therefore get an idea of the constraints and limitations of the insurance policy. It makes sense to opt for a critical illness plan that offers a wider scope of coverage and less exclusions. If a certain exclusion in the policy you feel would be a problem in future, check in case the same can added as a rider.

5. Illnesses and Diseases Covered: It is important that you know your critical illness plan covers. Critical illnesses such as heart ailments, cancer, etc. should be covered. Higher the number of critical illnesses covered, better would be the insurance plan. Certain insurance companies offer coverage for 37 illnesses whereas some offer up to 8 critical diseases.

You can review your eating habits, your lifestyle as well as family history and then opt for a critical illness insurance that you feel will offer you protection against unnecessary financial constraints that suddenly arise due to such health expenses.