What Is Critical Illness?
The illnesses that happen to you which might require immediate medical attention but also you need to treat for the long term by paying too much for the treatment costs are considered critical illnesses. These illnesses are mostly life-threatening diseases like cancer, heart attack, renal failure, stroke, organ transplants, coronary bypass, etc.
What is Critical Illness Insurance?
Critical illness insurance policy came into place in 1996 as people realised surviving a critical illness will cause you an enormous amount of money for your whole life sometimes. Even when you have medical insurance in place even if you get one critical illness it will wipe out the whole money from your health insurance policy which limits your other benefits eventually.
The Critical illness cover will pay the insured’s medical bills with a lump sum amount in case they get diagnosed with a critical illness mentioned above. The sedentary lifestyle of people nowadays is giving them most of the diseases which ultimately turn up critical.
Critical illnesses might prove fatal and hence they will require huge and intensive treatments. This is where the critical illness insurance policies prove very useful as they would provide financial security for the policyholder.
Know More About Critical Illness Insurance In India
Most health insurers as well as life insurers offer Critical illness covers too in India. But it is a stand-alone policy that is independent of the health insurance plan that you might have bought. It can be bought as an add-on too in your health or life insurance plan.
It is highly recommended to get a separate insurance cover for Critical illness as the add-on will have only a smaller amount of benefits keeping in mind the bills that you might have to pay for expensive treatments.
Best Critical Insurance policies from Top 10 Health Insurance providers in India
In India, many top Health Insurance companies provide critical illness insurance cover for people. Critical insurance coverage is provided for around 36 major critical illnesses. Let us look at them with the sum insured for each.
| Health Insurance Company | Critical Illness Cover Name | Sum Insured |
| Bajaj Allianz Health Insurance | Critical Illness Insurance | Rs. 1 Lakh – Rs. 50 Lakhs |
| Niva Bupa (formerly known as Max Bupa critical illness) | Criticare Health Insurance Plan | Rs. 3 Lakhs – Rs. 2 Cr |
| SBI Health Insurance | Critical Illness Insurance Policy | Maximum Sum Assured to Rs. 50 Lakh |
| Royal Sundaram Health Insurance | Lifeline Elite Health Insurance | Rs. 25 Lakhs – Rs 1 Cr |
| Manipal Cigna Health Insurance | Lifestyle Protection- Critical Care Health Plan | Up to Rs. 25 Cr |
| Future Generali Health Insurance | Critical Illness Insurance Plan | Adults Rs 1 Lakh – Rs. 50 LakhsChildren – Rs 1 Lakh – Rs 20 Lakhs |
| Edelweiss Health Insurance | Platinum Health Care | Up to Rs. 1 Cr |
| Care Health Insurance | Care Health Assure Insurance Policy | Rs. 10 Lakh – Rs 2 Cr |
| Star Health Insurance | Criti Care Plus | Rs. 2 Lakh – Rs. 10 Lakhs |
| United India Health Insurance | UNI Criticare Health Insurance Plan | Rs 1 Lakh – Rs. 10 Lakhs |
What Is Meant By Critical Illness Rider?
When it comes to life-threatening diseases or conditions a normal health insurance policy will not be enough to cover the expenses arising out of the treatment for the same. As discussed already, this is the time when a wise decision on critical illness cover is taken or choosing an add-on feature to the existing policy.
Critical illness policies come as both stand-alone policies and as riders. Critical illness rider is completely an optional add-on feature that you may buy along with your existing health insurance policy. There are some features for the rider option and they are limited whereas a stand-alone Critical illness policy will have major benefits as the nature of the coverage is huge. It all depends on the policyholder’s health condition and requirements that will eventually decide what to opt for.
Features of Critical Illness Rider
Here are the features of critical illness riders:
- Can be opted along with your existing health insurance policy
- About 8-10 critical illnesses are covered(limited) depending on the insurance company
- No additional renewal is required as it is automatically renewed along with the existing health insurance policy.
- Have to stick to the existing coverage amount for the base policy.
- No separate medical test is required.
- No waiting period policy provides cover for critical illness from Day one.
- Tax benefits available- Check this under Section 80C/ 80D
- Affordable or cheaper additional premium
Term Insurance with Critical Illness Rider
As we know Term Insurance is the most basic and old form of Life Insurance that provides a payment of a lump sum amount on the death of the policyholder, while he was still insured with the insurer. If the tenure was over with the company the cover will have lapsed automatically and the company won’t be liable to pay anything to the insured.
Critical illnesses come without announcements or predictions hence having a rider in place of your basic term insurance is an important option to save your health and your savings as it acts as an income replacement.
The riders are created with a set goal to protect your financial burdens which might get huge with the huge medical bills. When you opt for a critical illness rider in your term insurance you are eligible to get a lump sum amount on the diagnosis of the critical illnesses mentioned on the terms.
Top 6 Term insurance companies in India
Some of the best Term insurance companies in India that offer the best critical illness insurance riders are mentioned below.
| Term Insurance Company with Critical Illness Rider | Maximum Amount provided | Number Of Critical Illnesses Covered |
| Bharti AXA Flexi Term | Rs. 1 Cr | 34 |
| Bajaj Allianz eTouch Online Term | Rs. 75 Lakh | 34 |
| Edelweiss Tokio MyLife+ | No Maximum Limit | 12 |
| Kotak Life e-Term Life | Rs. 1 Cr | 37 |
| Max Life Insurance Online Term Plus | Rs. 1 Cr | 40 |
| SBI Life Insurance Poorna | Rs. 2.5 Cr | 36 |
Every person needs benefits by taking a critical illness insurance policy as the lifestyle of people is highly complicated these days with lots of work under a stress-filled atmosphere that may result in people getting affected by critical illnesses like heart attack, stroke, etc.
Moreover, critical illnesses interfere hugely with the person’s finances by making him unable to save money from his income, as the person himself won’t be able to work much and will be unable to earn too. Upon that he might have to pay for the expensive treatments for the critical illness. To prevent those kinds of unfortunate situations a person can wisely buy a critical illness policy.
Common FAQs
- Will I be able to get critical illness insurance cover after I get a stroke?
Most insurance companies provide cover before any diagnosis of a critical illness to keep the insured prepared. However, depending on the insurers, some companies still offer a cover after the policyholder gets diagnosed with a critical illness.
- Do I need a compulsory medical check-up before buying a critical illness insurance policy?
Yes, most critical illness insurance covers, if the policyholder is required to get a medical checkup done up to 45 years of age.
- How do I know which type of critical illness insurance I should opt for?
It depends on your age, the place you live, your lifestyle pattern and your annual income to determine the apt cover for you. You may get in touch with the insurance company who will provide you with the suggestions.
- What is the maximum sum assured amount offered by SBI Critical Illness Policy?
The sum assured amount given by SBI ranges from Rs.2 Lakh to Rs.50 Lakhs depending on the age of the policyholder.
- Does Bajaj Allianz critical illness policy have a maximum sum assured amount offered to the policyholders?
The maximum sum assured offered by Bajaj Allianz varies according to the age and the type of section of the insurance cover they have chosen. There are mainly 5 sections in the policy according to the severity of the disease. For minor stages of disease, it is minimum Sum assured is Rs.1 Lakh for entry age between 18-65 years and the maximum sum assured is Rs.50 Lakhs. For the entry age group from 61 -65 it is Rs.10 Lakhs as per the section of the cover taken.