Dealing with a critical illness can be a life-changing experience and unfortunately, they are common. One in three Canadians will be affected by one in their lifetime.
Critical illness insurance protects you and your family from the financial strain caused by the necessities of a major illness that are not protected through income replacement or covered under existing healthcare plans. It provides you with a lump sum payment if you ever experience a life-threatening illness covered under your policy’s contract.
In this short blog, we’ll teach you the basics of critical illness insurance, so you can understand it and decide if you need it.
Illnesses That Can Qualify
These include serious injuries, diseases, and major surgeries. To be specific, some commonly covered illnesses are:
- Heart attacks
- Strokes
- Cancer
- Major surgeries
Critical illness insurance is valuable to everyday people like us because it helps us focus on recovery knowing we have additional money to help with expenses. The payment amount we would receive depends on the amount of coverage in the policy.
The policy’s payment can be spent however you’d like. In our experience, we’ve seen people use Critical Illness Payments for:
- Living expenses
- Medical bills after leaving the hospital
- Private in-home care
- A wheelchair
- Retrofitting their home
- Paying down debt
- Vacation
Our free healthcare as Canadians only covers the hospital’s consultation and medical expenses during our initial hospital stay. This does not include things like drugs and nursing services after your hospital stay ends.
Who Needs Critical illness insurance?
As planners, we typically recommend it for any adult that would need financial help in the event of a serious critical illness.
Most people are unable to work for a while after something severe like a stroke. That’s exactly why it can be a lifesaver for anyone having to make up for lost income.
You may already have some level of Critical illness insurance through your job’s employee benefits plan, so we recommend checking that first. Depending on your circumstances, you may want additional coverage to protect yourself. Claims typically need to be made
If you have any questions about Critical illness insurance, you can contact us.
Sources:
Critical illness insurance – Canada.ca