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Know about Health insurance, Critical illness and Cancer insurance plan

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Published on June 21, 2021. EST READ TIME: 3 minutes

There are various health insurance policies available and selecting the best one that suits your needs is very important. Plans such as critical illness plan, cancer insurance plans, women specific plans etc. are easily available but are you aware about the difference between the various plans? Here is a quick understanding of the various types of plans available.

Health insurance: 

Health insurance  documents can be verbose and unless individuals are familiar with the terms mentioned, information available might not make much sense. The following terms are found scattered across health insurance documents.

• Assignee (or policyholder) refers to the individual who avails benefits from the insurance policy.

• Claim refers to the payment request filed by the assignee, such that the insurance company pays their mentioned medical expenses.

• Co-Payments refer to the cost-sharing requirement wherein the policyholder agrees to pay a certain percentage of the hospital bill. By agreeing to such terms, they are charged a lower premium.

• The fixed amount a patient must pay each year until their health insurance benefits begin to cover such costs is called a deductible. This amount is either fixed or a percentage of the claim amount. The insurance company can’t be expected to cover this amount and expects the policyholder to do so.

• Long-term disability insurance provides incapacitated or disabled policyholders with a payment of a percentage of their monthly income.

• Grace Period covers the 15 days following the expiry of the due date of premium payment. During this time, policyholders can pay to renew or continue a policy without losing existing benefits such as coverage of pre-existing diseases. However, coverage isn’t available for the delayed period from the due date. This fact reinforces the importance to keep renewing health insurance as and when its premium is owed.

• Pre-existing disease - This includes any condition, ailment or injury for which the policyholder experienced symptoms / was diagnosed or received medical advice within 48 months prior to availing of the first policy issued by the insurer. If the issuer fails to mention this, their insurer may choose to reject their claim.

• Waiting period is the time during which certain benefits of a given policy might not be available to the insured. This period generally comes into effect when individuals avail of a new health insurance policy.

Critical illness insurance

Critical illness insurance can be a real life-saviour if you are diagnosed with a chronic illness. Treatment costs for such diseases typically run in lakhs. Without a critical illness cover, you may have to borrow from relatives, withdraw existing investments, and the like. There are many critical illness insurance plans in the market, but ours offers many unique benefits. Here is why and when you should consider buying a critical illness insurance policy:

Reasons you should buy a critical illness insurance policy

Lump sum Payment: Critical health insurance policies pay a lump sum amount if the policyholder is diagnosed with a covered critical illness. The amount offered goes up to the sum insured. The lump sum amount can be used for:

• Covering treatment costs

• Paying off debts

• Recuperation aids

• Making up for any lost income due to loss of ability to work because of the illness

Cancer insurance

Cancer has become more of a lifestyle disease and one out of six people globally suffer from cancer. Cancer medical expenses are skyrocketing and for a middle-class person, it may create financial strain there isn't enough strong financial backing then people might be drawn into debt. Cancer is draining both emotionally as well as financially. To safeguard your life time savings it’s important to buy a cancer specific policy by HDFC ERGO.

iCan  is a lifelong bag of goodies that provides you with health insurance coverage and along with it lump sum benefits to support you in defeating cancer for a win.  iCan covers all kinds and all stages of cancer.  iCan covers your medical treatment costs up to the sum insured and will offer a lump sum amount to pay for other miscellaneous expenses too. You can additional get 60% of the sum insured, as a lump sum payment if cancer is detected of specified severity. From chemotherapy to stem cell transplantation, it offers complete cover for conventional and advanced treatments as well as your in-patient and outpatient treatments costs. You can also get reimbursement for treatments and diagnosis expenses up to 30 days before admission. iCan also offers you follow up care of up to 60 days after your hospitalisation.

Cancer treatments are not the same as any other diseases. It's highly specialized and powerful. Due to advancements in science cancer is curable at earlier stages but the treatments are very expensive and often not covered well in a regular health insurance plan. 

Disclaimer:  The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.