Term insurance is undoubtedly the purest form of risk mitigation. Most term insurance policies include a terminal illness rider/Cancer Rider with an additional cost, a critical illness cover is offered as an additional option. Cancer would come under the critical illness bucket, and you should definitely opt for it.
What is an Insurance Rider?
Generally, a rider is a supplement to a standard insurance policy, such as an auto or home owner’s policy. Its function is to provide additional benefits available through a standard policy. In return, the policyholder pays an additional premium. Riders are also common in life and health insurance.
As insurance plans are often sold as vanilla covers and riders mean add-on facilities. Add-ons like Critical Illness Benefit/Reinstatement of Sum Assured/Ambulance cover/OPD cover/Disability cover etc. are additional protections. These add-on facilities are different from life insurance and are optional.
How does a cancer rider work in Term Insurance Policy?
In today’s fast-moving life, anyone may or may not have any medical history, can become a victim of serious life-threatening diseases. Hence it is advised to provide an additional cover with the critical illness rider. It is highly recommended for those who are unable to lead a healthy lifestyle or are leading a stressful life.
Whenever you take a cancer rider option in a term insurance policy, you get an additional coverage. After taking the policy, if the life assured suffers from a major critical illness such as heart attack, cancer, stroke, major organ or marrow transplant, the insurer will pay 100% of the rider amount on survival for 30 days after confirmation of the above diagnosis. pays.
When a serious disease occurs, such serious diseases lead to the end of life. The rider cover comes with some income to protect the life assured. This money comes in handy which can be used to cover monthly household expenses or medical expenses. In the Critical Illness rider plan, the insurer pays compensation to the life assured after a waiting period of 30 days after the diagnosis of any of the mentioned critical illnesses is confirmed.
Benefits of a cancer rider with a term insurance
When you opt for critical illness rider or cancer rider along with term insurance, you get other benefits along with the main policy. Some of these are listed below.
- You can avail riders to take care of your medical expenses.
- You can use this rider as a tool for income replacement.
- You will get double tax benefit.
- Biggest Use of Critical Illness Rider You can take additional coverage for major illnesses like cancer, heart attack, paralysis, organ transplant, bypass surgery, kidney failure and stroke.
Why should I include critical illness riders with Term Insurance Policy?
With the treatment of any illness becoming very expensive in today’s time, it is important to have a critical illness cover, as it helps to ensure that your savings are not wiped out due to a life-threatening illness. A separate health insurance (such as hospitalization cover) only covers expenses due to hospitalization and may not be sufficient for problems like cancer, heart attack, etc. It is also definitely a better idea to get a term insurance plan with a critical illness than a separate health insurance.
Critical illness cover comes in handy in case of concerns like sudden heart attack, treatments like angioplasty, cancer etc. which are not really uncommon these days.
Is it better to take a Cancer Care policy or with a term insurance
In today’s time, the treatment of any critical disease is becoming very expensive, it can also end your savings. Medical inflation is increasing at the rate of 15% every year. Cancer treatment is becoming very expensive, so cancer insurance policy should be bought with adequate sum insured. In cancer insurance policy, you get coverage only for cancer, but if you take critical illness rider option with term insurance, then you get cover for cancer as well as other critical diseases.
Also Read – Why Should I Buy Term Life Insurance?
Is it worth to take term insurance with rider?
A term insurance rider is a must in your term insurance plan and it gives supplementary coverage to the policyholder. Term insurance with riders is a complete plan and gives you maximum benefits at minimum cost. Due to the riders, it strengthens your policy by providing several additional benefits, apart from the core offering of death benefits.
It is good to add riders in a term plan. Riders benefits like accident benefit, critical illness rider etc. will help the nominees to get some additional benefits in case of any claim.
Accidental Death Benefit Riders : – This will be equal to the Basic Sum Assured of the plan. For example, if the life cover under the term plan is Rs.1 crore, then the accident benefit rider will also be subject to a maximum of Rs.1 crore. That is, one crore rupees for normal death and two crore rupees for accidental death. The additional premium charged would be very nominal and every proposer should add contingency cover to their plan.
Critical Illness Cover :- This benefit is a type of health care plan. Almost all health insurance and life insurance companies have this plan. As per this plan, diseases/illness as mentioned by the company in the offer document will be covered.
The number of sick days varies from plan to plan and company to company. If any disease is diagnosed with the premium paying term, the sum assured will be paid to the policyholder or nominee. The claim amount can be utilized as per the wish of the policyholder or nominee.
The above mentioned riders are very important for all term insurance proposals. Riders like premium waiver benefits are also very essential but it comes as a free rider with most of the plans.
Also Read – Is It Really Worth It To Buy A Term Life Insurance?
What are the things to remember while buying?
Whenever you add a rider to the policy, you have to keep a few things in mind: –
- Each term insurance rider has its own importance, choose it according to your requirement.
- Critical illness rider can increase the overall chances of survival of the individual, as the policyholders get access to adequate funds for the best treatment.
- Critical illness rider ensures that the policyholder can access all the resources needed for proper diagnosis and medical treatment.
- Whenever you choose to take a critical illness rider, you must always go through the list of illnesses it covers.
- Each rider has a waiting period so remember that the waiting period, if applicable, must expire before the policyholder is eligible to receive the benefits.
- Rider benefits are provided only on diagnosis of a critical illness, depending on the terms and conditions of the policy.
- Critical Illness Rider helps you get additional medical insurance coverage for a single premium.
- You just have to add an additional amount and don’t have to pay premium separately.
- The sum insured of any rider is often the same as that of the base insurance policy, with a cap on the maximum sum insured at times.
Now that you have a basic understanding of critical illness riders and why they are necessary, check out the options available and choose the one that best suits your needs.
Frequently Asks Questions(FAQ’s)
Q1. Does critical illness rider pay on death?
Critical illness rider benefit is an optional benefit offered by a term plan that provides a lump sum amount on the diagnosis of critical illness such as cancer, heart attack, chronic lung disease etc.
Q2. Can I add rider later in term insurance?
Yes, You can add the rider any time to your base plan, during purchase or post-purchase. Your premium amount will be decided accordingly, provided you have a specified number of years left in your policy term.
Q3. Can I get critical illness cover for pre existing conditions?
If you already have any serious illness like cancer, TB, heart disease etc. then no insurance company will accept your new proposal. Although there is a waiting period of 4 years for certain pre-existing diseases, read the policy terms of the insurance company carefully before purchasing the policy.
The Bottom Line
Sudden hospitalization due to any reason can take a toll on one’s financial budget and most of the earning professionals do not think seriously about this aspect. Both serious and terminal illness have the potential to throw your life into disarray. Hence a critical illness cover is offered as an additional illness cover. Critical illness rider in term insurance will pay you a lump sum, and you can use this money to maintain your life during the recovery period.
