What is Critical Illness?
Critical illness cover has been specifically designed to help policyholders get a good sum of cash incase they are diagnosed with a critical illness recognized by the insurance company. Critical illness covers medical conditions such as loss of limbs, strokes, advanced cancers, heart attacks etc. This policy helps a policy holder in meeting medical expenses. It also protects a mortgage and comes in handy when a person is devoid of income due to illness. A critical illness cover can have an index linked, decreasing or level benefit, depending on the type of policy chosen.
When applying for a critical illness insurance cover, you need to know certain things so that later you do not have any problem in getting your claim.
- To begin with, you need to be completely honest about your medical history as well as your family history. And even if you have a certain condition that you think is trivial or irrelevant to critical illness, you must disclose it. This is because your claims can be rejected later on grounds of non disclosure. So even if you think that something like depression and cancer is not related, your insurer surely won’t think so. Because at any point if you suffer from a critical illness, the insurer might relate it to some minor medical condition of yours and reject your claims completely! You should give a detailed account of all your previous illnesses both major and minor. Also do not forget to read the small print when you select the policy. Read all the clauses very carefully. Don’t withhold any information, relevant or irrelevant. Take your own good time when you fill in the policy form.
- A critical insurance cover means that you have to be extra careful about reading all its terms and policies. So don’t rush through it, or you will end up losing on the benefits. If you don't read the finer print you may miss out on a clause and as a result, you may not get the money and this can be a great setback especially after you have spent so much money on buying the policy and paying its premium.
You must always compare the rates of different insurance agents before buying the critical life insurance policy. This will help you in getting a good deal. The Internet is a good place to shop around; you can also get heavy discounts when you buy your policy online.