Critical illnesses are life-threatening diseases, all too common nowadays. With increasing healthcare costs, you don’t want the stress of financial burden should a critical illness arise. Moreover, expenses related to treatment and care during critical illness are far higher than those related to non-critical illnesses. Critical illness covers conditions like cardiac arrest, stroke, kidney failure, cancer etc. and you cannot ignore treatment, or the costs associated with it. With this in view, several insurance companies provide specifically designed insurance policies that focus on coverage for critical illness. Such policies, unlike regular life insurance plans, give the insured a lump sum in the event of a diagnosis of critical disease according to the terms and conditions of the policy. However, critical illness insurance plans have certain clauses such as the critical illness survival period, and you should be aware of how these affect plans.
What is the survival period?
A critical illness insurance plan saves you from the exorbitant costs of medical treatment you would have to incur if you had a critical illness like cancer or heart disease. The insurer gives you an amount in a lump sum to cover your costs. Although this may help you in a substantial way, there are specific clauses in a critical illness plan that you should take note of. For instance, the survival period in critical illness plans.
A critical insurance policy's survival period is an important factor to be considered. It is the amount of time one must survive after being diagnosed with a critical illness for availing the benefit under the plan. Once you have passed the survival period, you will be eligible for benefits under the policy subject to its terms & conditions . The length of the survival period varies from insurer to Insurer, however it typically ranges from 14 days to a month. When purchasing insurance, this factor must be considered. A shorter survival period will prevent emotional fatigue. It will enable you to reap additional benefits from the policy.
Facts to Know About the Survival Period
For any individual who opts for a critical illness plan, they must understand certain facts related to the survival period clause of the plan. As you may have read, in some insurance policies, there is something that is known as a “waiting period”. This differs from the survival period. Hence, before you opt for any plan, you should read and grasp the terms and conditions thoroughly. Here are certain facts about the differences between the critical illness survival period and the waiting period clauses that occur in insurance plans. You should know about these, so you don’t get confused:
- While all life insurance plans have waiting period clauses, all do not have survival period clauses.
- The waiting period is defined as the period a policyholder has to wait before they are eligible to get any benefit from the policy. This begins once your policy becomes effective. For a critical illness policy, the waiting period may be longer than that of a regular policy.
- The waiting period of any policy is influenced by pre-existing medical conditions that a policyholder may have.
- The survival period is of a short duration, unlike that of the waiting period. The survival period of any critical illness insurance policy only takes effect after a diagnosis of critical illness is made. To gain any benefit from the plan, a policyholder must survive this time span.
Conclusion
The critical illness survival period is a crucial part of a critical illness policy. You may not be able to predict when an illness occurs, but you can certainly opt for a plan that has a brief survival period. In this way, you secure your future financials in a logical way. Purchasing critical illness plans is one of the preferred ways to gain peace of mind that is needed when dealing with any critical illness.
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