For a country where the average life expectancy is generally a couple of shades lower than the global average of 70 years, the attitude towards treatment for illness in India remains one of a fatalistic surrender to destiny.

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Today, non-communicable diseases like cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes, are the chief killers in the subcontinent – these four diseases alone account for 60% of total deaths in India. The country's disease burden is only expected to increase, significantly so, as the incidence of heart disease and diabetes is projected to double, and cancer cases are expected to increase by 25%.

Despite real-life case studies around us, and the oft-repeated reports and statistics being flung our way, many continue to be ill-prepared for illness when it strikes us or our family members, especially on major illnesses. When calamities strike, we fall back on savings and personal finances to fund treatment needs.

A report by the National Commission on Macroeconomic and Health Financing of Health in India shows three-fourths of the total health expenditure in India come from households while around 25% gets financed by the public sector (central, state and local governments). And be prepared to shell out more. In the same report, an examination of 152 popular drugs (like anti-TB, antibiotics, etc.) found that prices over a 24-year period (from 1976 to 2000) had steadily increased, at the rate of up to 15% per year. With medical inflation well into the double digits (it is projected at over 18%), just the thought of rising cost of drugs and treatment could make one uneasy.

Take cancer, for instance, that alone accounts for 7% of deaths in India. The cancer drug Herceptin, one of the most effective drugs for breast cancer, costs Rs 75,000- Rs 1 lakh for a vial. Patients typically need anywhere from 6 to 17 vials for treatment. Similarly, Avastin, another popular drug, costs anywhere between Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 a cycle, with patient requirements being 5 to 10 cycles per course. With the cost of treating this disease running into several lakhs of rupees, cancer patients often prefer to abandon the treatment rather than run into penury. Oncologists have plenty of depressing stories about families who have been completely destroyed in meeting the mounting treatment costs.

Similarly, an angioplasty can costs anywhere from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh depending on how many stents are used, or where you get it done. Advanced procedures and tests are more effective, but also more expensive.

With hospitals investing heavily in super-specialty equipment that runs into several crores of rupees, costs for treatments vary widely depending on location, tests, procedures and hospital. Once a patient is admitted, incidental costs, such as ICU admission, treatment for new infections, etc. can go sky-high. It takes several years to make up for what patients lose in terms of monetary loss if they dip into personal savings to cover expenses.

One grim World Health Organization statistic is that there is a 26% probability that a person between 30 and 70 years could die of any of the four non-communicable diseases in India. Getting a critical illness insurance cover then seems to be an obvious choice. But few Indians opt for health insurance, and of that barely a fraction get the additional critical illness cover. Basic healthcare insurance does not cover critical illness, and even if it did, the amount is too small to cover any major medical treatment.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has mandated that at least 12 critical illnesses be covered under any critical illness plan and many of the existing plans offer coverage for many more. Cancer, kidney failure, heart attack, coma, organ transplant, paralysis, major burns, open-heart surgery, multiple sclerosis, etc. are some of the illnesses and treatments covered under these plans.

Hospital cashless treatment and associated fleecing is, however, not applicable for standalone critical illness products which provide a lump sum on the occurrence of the event. So upon claim approval, a lump sum is paid irrespective of actual expenses involved.

Critical illness is a very important pure health cover and should be must in a person's portfolio to guard one from any such eventualities.

The author is the MD & CEO at Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance