The pain and struggle are unparalleled if you get diagnosed with a severe disease like cancer. Although you may think a health insurance policy will be a ray of hope amidst the darkness, it’s not. You must know that health insurance plans don’t cover the treatment cost of any critical illness.
In such a situation, you’ll realize that every premium that you paid to stay protected against any health condition has been of no use, especially when he would need it most. That’s because your health insurance will only pay for your hospitalization expenses, but not the treatment costs.
You can save yourself from such emotional and financial distress in the future with critical illness insurance by your side. Like you, there are several other people who may think that a comprehensive health insurance policy is sufficient to deal with any health condition that may happen in life.
However, they tend to forget that health insurance and critical insurance cover are two different policies that meet the patient’s diverse needs. By now, you must’ve got some idea of “what is health insurance and what critical illness insurance is.”
However, it’s imperative to understand the reasons why you need both insurance plans separately. Keep reading to find out.
Health Insurance Vs. Critical Illness Insurance: Fundamental Feature
At the time of hospitalization, you can use a health insurance policy to fund your medical and OPD expenses. However, that may not cover all the diseases, and you may have to wait for an extended period.
However, critical illness insurance covers treatment expenses for life-threatening diseases like kidney failure, cancer, multiple sclerosis, bypass surgery, etc. As soon as you complete a diagnosis with any of these listed critical illnesses, you get the cover amount.
Remember that such a policy won’t cover any of your hospitalization expenses. In that case, you’ll need health insurance cover.
Health Insurance Vs. Critical Illness Insurance: Coverage
A critical illness policy and a health insurance plan come with a different scope of coverage. Health insurance ensures coverage for accidents and a spectrum of ailments. After a certain period, this policy even covers maternity health and pre-existing diseases.
On the other hand, critical illness insurance ensures coverage of a specific list of critical or life-threatening diseases, which may include 6-12 critical illnesses depending on what your insurer offers.
Health Insurance Vs. Critical Illness Insurance: Advantages
The advantage of having the best health insurance in India includes the funding of hospitalization expenses. When seeking treatment at a network hospital, you can ask for a cashless billing facility where the hospitalization expenses get paid by the insurance company.
Once you make a claim, the health insurance will keep going with time until the total sum insured comes down to zero. However, you can always choose to renew it every year.
Critical illness policies come with their set of benefits. Here, once you get diagnosed with an insurer-specified critical illness, they provide you with a tax-exempt lump sum amount. You won’t have to submit any original copies or photocopies of the bills.
As you receive the amount at once, you can spend it as per your requirements. Moreover, once you make a claim, the insurance policy expires.
Health Insurance Vs. Critical Illness Insurance: Sum Assured
The value of the sum assured varies depending on the insurer. However, there are some pre-defined limits for all. When it comes to a health insurance policy, the maximum cap is set at INR 5 lacs.
However, some insurance companies can even assure coverage up to INR 10 lacs. Now, the coverage cost of critical illness insurance ranges between INR 5 lac to INR 50 lac.
Final Thoughts
While health insurance policies are purchased to cover the hospitalization expenditures, critical illness plans reimburse the financial expenses that occur due to any serious illness.
You don’t want to be in a situation wherein you’ll be unable to fight any life-threatening disease despite being covered by a comprehensive health insurance plan.
Both types of policies are made to serve some exact need and supplement one another, and thus, both the plans are essential and must be bought separately. So, make sure you have them both!
