Critical Illness Rider is a term insurance rider that helps a person to make sure financial security of their loved ones in times of crisis. Critical illness rider benefit is an add-on coverage attached to the base term plan in return for an additional premium. Under this rider, the lump sum payment helps life assured’s family in case he/she is diagnosed with the critical illness mentioned under the plan term. These riders offer coverage against life-threatening illnesses such as heart disease, kidney failure, cancer, and tumor.
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Critical Illness Rider is an important term insurance add-on that helps the policyholder financially if in case they are diagnosed with any critical illness during the policy term. Term insurance with critical illness cover secures the policyholder against a variety of life-threatening ailments such as kidney failure, stroke, or cancer. This rider helps in enhancing the coverage of the base term plan by providing protection against cancer of specified severity, heart attack, open chest CABG, stroke, kidney failure, and more critical illnesses covered under the term plan.
The critical illness rider benefit financially secures the policyholder and their family members by offering a lump sum payout on the diagnosis of a critical illness by paying a nominal price. The received payment can be used for covering the treatment cost of the diagnosed diseases without worrying about financial security or compromising the quality of treatment because of insufficient funds. It can be easily purchased during the inception of the policy or any of the subsequent plan anniversaries of the base plan.
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How Does the Critical Illness Rider Work?
Let’s understand this with the help of an example:
Kunali is a 25-year-old non-smoker who buys a 1 Crore term insurance till 60 years of age. She decides to include the critical illness rider of Rs. 10 Lacs in her base plan, which made her base premium go from Rs. 692 per month to Rs. 973 per month. After a few years, she was unfortunately diagnosed with kidney failure and required regular dialysis. Since her term insurance with critical illness covered this illness, she received the rider sum assured of Rs. 10 Lacs to take care of this illness. She used this amount to pay for her medical bills and get the best treatments she could access. After this payout, her term plan continued as normal and she stayed covered under the plan benefits for the entire policy tenure.
Why Do You Need a Critical Illness Rider Benefit?
Term insurance with critical illness cover financially secures you to get the best treatment possible without worrying about medical costs, in case the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical illness. The premium rates for this rider depend on various factors such as the number of illnesses covered, age, medical history, and insurance amount.
Benefits of Buying Term Insurance with Critical Illness Rider
Let us take a look at some of the term rider benefits that you can include using a critical illness rider:
Financial Security in times of crisis: The critical illness rider can provide extra financial aid to help you take care of your financial obligations and medical treatments. If you’re diagnosed with a critical illness covered by the insurer, these plans pay you the rider sum assured and that claim amount can be used to pay for medical treatments or other expenses. With this rider, you can focus completely on treatment and recovery rather than panicking about the finances related to illnesses.
Coverage Against Wider Range of Illnesses: The term insurance with critical illness covers a wide range of critical illnesses under the rider. Since this list differs as per the insurer and the policy, one should always check the plan to determine how many and what types of illnesses are covered.
Income Replacement: In case the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical ailment, it can be possible that your health does not allow you to continue doing your job. In such conditions, the family’s living might be in danger. Though, in case of sufficient coverage under a critical rider, you can claim the amount to pay for living and treatment expenses.
Additional Coverage: Term insurance with critical illness can provide additional coverage over your existing health or any other type of insurance. These together can increase your total payout amount and help you take care of your expenses.
Take Care of Expensive Treatments: The payout received from the critical illness rider can be used to take care of all the expensive treatments and medical bills.
Affordable Premiums: The premium rate for term insurance with critical illness cover is very affordable and can easily fit into anyone’s budget. This way you can protect your health without draining your bank balance.
Tax Benefits: A critical illness rider provides additional term life insurance tax benefits under section 80D on top of the regular tax benefits as per the prevailing tax laws.
Note: It is suggested to calculate the term plan premium on the term insurance calculator online tool by Policybazaar before buying the plan.
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What are the Illnesses Covered under the Critical Illness Rider Benefit?
While the list of critical illnesses covered under each plan differs with different insurers and their policy details. Let us take a look at some of the main illnesses covered under the critical illness rider:
Kidney Failures
Certain stages of Cancer
Heart Attacks
Major Organ Transplant
Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
Primary Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Aorta Graft Surgery
Strokes
Paralysis of Limbs
Multiple Sclerosis, and more
It is important to note that the actual list of critical illnesses covered by each plan depends on the insurance provider and you should always take a good look at the list of illnesses covered under the plan before the policy purchase to avoid any future confusion.
How Much Critical Illness Cover Do I Need With Term Insurance?
Before purchasing the most suitable term insurance with critical illness cover, you need to make sure you are choosing the right cover amount for your critical illness rider benefit. Since the insurer will pay this rider sum assured in case of diagnosis of a critical illness, you need to make sure that the cover amount is enough to help you cover your medical bills in the future (keeping in mind the increasing costs of medical bills due to the rising inflation) and your family’s needs in case you lose your job due to ailment.
A lot of insurance companies also offer the option of including a waiver of premium on critical illness rider, which waives off any remaining premiums in case you are diagnosed with a critical illness. This way you can be relieved from the stress of having to pay the remaining premiums while recovering from the critical illness.
How to Choose the Term Insurance With Critical Illness Cover?
To choose the most suitable critical illness term insurance, you should keep the following points in mind:
Age: You should always consider buying life insurance with critical illnesses as early as possible. This is because the premium rates for young and healthy individuals are much lower than others because they have a lower chance of being diagnosed with a life-threatening disease or condition.
Life Cover: The sum assured or the life cover of a term plan should be enough to cover your family’s financial needs, as this is the amount they would receive in the event of your unfortunate death.
Critical Illnesses Covered: The critical illness rider offered with the term plan of your choice should cover a vast variety of major and minor illnesses as the rider sum assured will be paid only on the diagnosis of the illnesses covered under the term insurance plan.
Maximum Age Limit: You should make sure to buy term insurance with critical illness rider offering the maximum coverage limit. This is the age limit till which the policyholder will be covered against the listed critical illnesses.
Ease of Claim Process: Always choose an insurance company that offers the easiest and the most convenient online claim process so that you get the payout at the time you need it the most.
Inclusions and Exclusions: You should go through the inclusions and exclusions under the critical illness term insurance and make sure you understand all the policy details, benefits, features, and limitations.
Comparison of Premium Rates: You can buy a critical illness rider with the base term plan by comparing the rider benefits online, at your convenience, from the comfort of your home. You can go through the list of critical illnesses covered under each plan and buy the one with the most comprehensive coverage.
Points to Keep in Mind When Choosing a Critical Illness Rider
Here is a list of all the points you should keep in mind while looking for the most suitable term insurance with critical illness rider:
You should always go through the list of critical illnesses covered under the rider as the list differs for different plans.
The critical illness rider can increase the policyholder’s chances of survival by providing sufficient funds to access the best treatments available.
Make sure to go through the applicable waiting period while purchasing the term insurance with critical illness cover to avoid confusion while availing of the rider benefits.
With a critical illness rider you can pay the premiums for your term and critical illness coverage within the same premium amount. Thus you do not have to pay separate premiums for different coverages.
The rider sum assured can be equal to or lower than the base sum assured of the policy.
The rider sum assured will be payable as per the policy T&Cs only on the diagnosis of the covered critical illnesses.
How to Buy a Critical Illness Rider?
You can buy a critical illness rider with your term insurance plan by following the below-mentioned steps:
Step 1: Go to the Term insurance form
Step 2: Fill in the required info regarding your name, date of birth, gender, and contact information
Step 3: Click on ‘View Plans’
Step 4: Select the suitable options within the annual income, occupation type, educational qualification, and smoking tobacco categories
Step 5: Go through the list of available plans that offer critical illness rider and choose the most suitable term plan
Step 6: Proceed to pay
How to Claim Term Insurance with Critical Illness Cover?
You can claim the critical illness rider benefit of your base term insurance plan on the diagnosis of the listed critical illness during the policy term in the following way:
Step 1: Submit the insurance company’s claim form along with the medical certificate
Step 2: Attach the non-relation certificate for pre-existing illnesses or injury
Step 3: Provide the test reports of the respective critical illnesses
Step 4: Submit the latest statements, KYC, and other required documents
Documents Required to Claim Critical Illness Rider
Here is a list of documents required to claim term insurance with critical illness cover
Duly filled insurer’s claims form
Medical certificate confirming the diagnosis of critical illness
Photocopy of ID card and NEFT details or a cancelled cheque
All the pre and post-medical records
Medical certificate stating that the critical illness is not due to any pre-existing injury or illness
Test reports like the first consultation letters and prescriptions
KYC Documents
Other specific documents
Final Thoughts
It is very crucial for the insurance seekers to consider having a critical illness benefit while purchasing a term plan. As this can save the buyer from getting financially drained out and can help them to carry out the treatment smoothly.
Even though the process of critical illness claim is transparent, it is important to keep in mind the different aspects like understanding the rider in detail, the inclusions and exclusions of the rider and the varying cost of riders from one insurer to another.
Is it good to take a critical illness rider with term insurance?
Ans: Yes, it is good to take a critical illness rider with your base term insurance plan, as it provides comprehensive coverage against a variety of critical illnesses of varying degrees of concern. It also provides tax savings benefits under section 80D of the Income Tax Act of 1961.
How much critical illness cover should you get?
Ans: You should always get enough life cover to help you get through a medical emergency. But here is a list of factors that can help you determine the appropriate critical illness rider sum assured: It should be enough to cover the medical costs throughout your recovery In case you lose your job due to illness, it should help you maintain your family’s monthly expenses The rider sum assured should be enough to help you take care of your financial liabilities like loans or child’s fees It should be in accordance with the expected inflation during the policy term
How does the critical illness term insurance payout?
Ans: The term insurance with critical illness pays when the policyholder submits the required critical illness claims documents with the medical reports stating the diagnosis of the covered critical illness. On successful verification of the claim initiated, the insurer will provide the entire rider sum assured to the policyholder in a lump sum or regular income as per the policy details.
What are the documents required to file the critical illness rider claim?
Ans: The policyholder would need to submit the following documents to get their rider claims settled: The claims form Medical report stating the diagnosis of covered critical illness Copies of all the medical records like admission and test reports Original policy documents Canceled cheque of the policyholder
Is buying critical illness rider costly?
Ans: Purchasing critical illness riders with term insurance plans is not that much costly. The cost depends on the chosen rider's life cover, health condition, age, and other factors.
Can I take more than one claim under critical illness riders for the same illnesses?
Ans: No, you cannot claim more than once for the same term insurance with critical illness cover. This rider provides you with a lump sum payment after which the cover gets terminated. It is always a good idea to buy a new cover if you wish to continue receiving the critical illness cover benefits.
Why should I buy critical illness rider with a term plan?
Ans: Buying a critical illness rider with term insurance is a good idea as it offers you a lump sum payout to manage the health expenses in case you’re diagnosed with a critical ailment. If an individual has a history of critical diseases in the family or is over 35-40 years, buying this rider is a wise decision.
What is the eligibility criteria to buy critical illness rider benefits?
Ans: The policyholder should be at least 18 years old to buy critical illness riders. You would be required to pass the medical examinations as requested by the insurance company.
Does term insurance cover critical illness?
Ans. No, the base term plan does not cover the policyholder against any critical illnesses, but you can enhance the coverage of the base policy by adding the critical illness rider. Term insurance with critical illness cover will provide coverage against a variety of life-threatening ailments throughout the policy term.
Can I add critical illness cover to my existing term insurance?
Ans. No, you cannot add a critical illness rider to an existing term insurance policy. The critical illness rider can only be added to the base plan at the inception of the policy, after which in case you want a critical illness coverage, you can buy a new term insurance with critical illness cover.
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