However, although insurance does provide financial support when one undergo treatments but leading a healthy lifestyle is what would help in nurturing a hale and hearty life throughout
Kunal Narvekar (35) and Shibila Narvekar (30), a newly married couple, and residents of Pune, had a busy and hectic lifestyle. As IT professionals, both were working through the week. During the weekend they would party and visit new places. Kunal used to get tired more often, but the couple brushed it off thinking it was due to their hectic schedules.
Suddenly, one morning while getting ready for work, Kunal started coughing profusely and noticed some blood in his phlegm. The couple rushed to their nearest hospital where he was advised various tests. They were shocked with the results as they realised that Kunal was suffering from stage 2 leukemia (blood cancer).
Not delaying much, Kunal began the required treatment and therapies and thanks to medical advancement he was declared cancer-free after a prolonged treatment process.
Although Kunal and Shibila were able to confront and win this battle together and are now leading a healthy lifestyle, the long and expensive treatment cut a huge hole through the couple's savings.
Need for critical illness cover
This is where a medical insurance with critical illness embedded in it would have helped the couple. However understanding the difference between a regular health insurance cover and a critical illness cover first is essential.
A basic health insurance policy that pays for your hospitalisation expenses is an indemnity product. It pays for your hospital bills up to the sum insured. This coverage also includes pre- and post-hospitalisation expenses and listed day-care procedures.
A critical illness policy is the most popular defined benefit plan. It pays the insurance cover—or the sum assured—on diagnosis of an insured critical illness; it doesn't matter what the hospital bill is. A critical illness plan covers major life threatening illness such as, major organ transplant, cancer, kidney failure, stroke, etc.
In this fight against major non-communicable life threatening diseases Kunal is not alone. India is a country where non-communicable disease continues to be a public health problem which is also the major reason for morbidity and mortality. We are the cancer, stroke, cardiac related ailments capital of the world. World Health Organisation data shows that by 2020, non-communicable diseases will have disastrous implications, and by 2030, it will be just catastrophic.
How to choose the plan most suited for you
The next dilemma is to decide what kind of plan under the plethora of critical illness plans is most suited for us. One must look for an insurance plan that provides the most comprehensive coverage, one that covers critical diseases and also provides for regular hospitalisation expenses. Also taking into account that it is always better to buy an insurance policy at a young age, one must look at plans that provides cover till maximum age because it is in the autumn years that one requires additional financial help.
However, although insurance does provide financial support when one undergo treatments but leading a healthy lifestyle is what would help in nurturing a hale and hearty life throughout.
The writer is executive director, Star Health and Allied Insurance
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