Why Are Critical Illnesses Tough to Handle, Financially?

You have gone to visit one of your friends who met with a serious injury, like a burn injury. The doctors have advised that it’ll take him at least a period of 6 months before he can resume normal activities. He has a medical insurance plan that will only take care of his hospitalization expenses. But it won’t take care of his home loan EMI’s and living expenses. His employer also, is not ready to sanction a paid leave of 6 months. How does he take care of his family for the period that he will be at home, recovering from the injury?

Depletion of Savings

This is a normal scenario that is played out across a lot of households. The severity and type of critical illness may differ, but the result;l is the same; depletion of savings. Irrespective of whether the individual concerned is suffering from a kidney disease, stroke, wants to get an organ transplant done or is wanting to have a tumour in the brain removed, the affected individual may have to take some time off from work that will affect his income generation ability.

What Do You Do When A Critical Illness Strikes?

Most people depend on their friend or relatives for financial support. A few have some savings with them in the form of liquid cash, F/D’s or gold which they liquidate and manage the condition. This would result in your savings getting depleted as you would be utilising that for meeting your day-to-day expenses since you would not be earning any income. These savings may be meant for your daughter’s marriage or her education or for foreclosing your loan.

Disruption of Your Plans

This will upset your plans and may disrupt your life badly. If, for instance, your daughter’s marriage is due in the next 6 months and the money that you had set aside for the same gets used up during the period you recover from the critical illness. You may have to look at taking an expensive short-term or intermediate-term loan to meet the expenses of the marriage which may disturb your financial plans. If you want to keep your savings intact, go for a critical illness plan.

What Is A Critical Illness Plan?

In the case of a medical emergency or what is called as incidence of a critical illness, the insurance company will make a pay out of the sum assured. So, for instance, if you have a critical illness plan with a sum assured of Rs.25 lakhs, you can submit a claim to the insurance company on diagnosis of the same. This sum may help you to pay your home loan EMI’s and allow you to maintain the same lifestyle that you were enjoying if you’d have received a regular monthly salary. The best part about this plan is that the claim is submitted just on the basis of a simple diagnosis report of the hospital or doctor. The claim, if approved, is not contingent to any conditions of hospitalization in listed hospitals or presentation of hospital invoices etc. The life assured can utilise the said sum in whichever way he deems fit. There are a lot of illnesses that are covered in plans like Edelweiss Tokio Life – CritiCare+ from first heart attack and stroke to partial blindness and kidney damage requiring dialysis.

If you don’t want your savings to get depleted because of a critical illness, buy a critical illness plan and shield your savings from depletion. This is perhaps the best way to handle the tough situation of a critical illness. Generate a quote today and find out how you can be well prepared for the onset of a critical illness.