Critical illness insurance is an important product in your health insurance portfolio. Under this plan, the insured person gets paid a lump sum if they are diagnosed with any of the critical illnesses that are covered. Critical illness insurance helps to supplement the coverage you get from health insurance. While health insurance helps with hospitalization costs, critical illness insurance acts as an income replacement. It allows you to provide for your family and yourself while receiving life-saving medical care. Remember that a critical illness – such as cancer – can often render you unable to work. Thus, we can understand how important it is to have some sort of coverage to be able to tide the tough times that follow.
Now, even with critical illness coverage, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Sensing the unique needs of their policyholders, leading insurance companies in Singapore offer different types of critical insurance plans so that you can choose which one might suit your unique needs. Let’s take a look at some of the major types of critical illness insurance plans and what they cover.
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General critical illness insurance:
General critical illness insurance plans are designed to cover you against a range of major illnesses such as cancer, heart attack of specified severity, and end-stage kidney failure, among others. Upon being diagnosed with a critical illness, you receive a lump sum payout from your plan. This payout can be used to meet any financial obligation that you deem necessary, such as your child’s school fees and affording household expenses. Leading insurance providers allow for multiple claims under critical illness insurance.
You may also add riders to supplement your coverage. For instance, you could add a rider that extends your plan to cover the pre-critical stage of critical illnesses too. This can prove truly helpful as general critical illness insurance usually only covers the advanced stages of a disease.
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Cancer-specific critical illness insurance:
Studies show that around 39 people in Singapore get diagnosed with cancer each day. Quite often, a cancer diagnosis might see you take a couple of years off from work to focus on treatment and recovery. The subsequent loss of income that you will thus face can have you quite stressed out. So, it makes sense to opt-in for a cancer-specific critical illness insurance plan that will truly have your back in dire straits.
Leading insurance providers have critical illness plans for cancer that offer 100% payout for all stages of cancer. The coverage can go as high as S$300,000 so that you can meet all your financial responsibilities without worry. If there is a family history, it would be wise to consider getting this coverage as soon as possible.
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Gender-specific critical illness insurance
Men and women have unique health needs. There are certain diseases that affect men and certain that are specific to women. To deal with this need for gender-specific coverage, insurance companies have critical illness plans that uniquely cater to the needs of male and female health. Critical illness insurance for men offers coverage against diseases commonly faced by males, such as malignant cancer of the prostate, testicle, and scrotum and carcinoma in situ of the colon and testicle, among other conditions.
Critical insurance for women offers coverage for malignant cancer of the uterus, breast, and ovary, carcinoma in situ of the breast, and uterine prolapse, among other conditions. Women can also include coverage for pregnancy complications as a rider. These plans also often include free medical screening for the insured person.
This is an overview of the main types of critical illness insurance plans available in Singapore. Do note that you can further customize your coverage by opting in for appropriate riders. Speak to an insurance consultant today for further guidance.