Securing the Future with a Major Illness Plan

Getting sick is never a good thing, but for some their illness can be very serious. When a major illness strikes, you don’t want to be left having to worry about getting adequate care or being unable to pay for the care you need. That is why you should secure your future with a major illness plan.

A major illness plan is often referred to as critical illness coverage. This coverage is to help its holder in the event of an emergency or a life-threatening situation/illness. The coverage will provide the person in question with the ability to obtain appropriate care at an affordable cost – guaranteeing that your focus can be on recovery and adapting to your new life instead of having to stress about financial or care-related issues.

What does a major illness plan do?

But what does this kind of coverage actually do? The above might make it sound like this is a question of having a medical insurance but that’s not the case. A major illness plan or critical illness cover is a different thing, although you should always also have appropriate health insurance to help cover the cost of care.

However, with critical illness insurance, you are securing more of your future. The cover is essentially an insurance benefit, which will provide you with a lump sum if you’ve been diagnosed with a critical illness or you’re dealing with an emergency medical procedure. For example, you could receive money if you’re diagnosed with cancer or you’ve had a heart attack and surgery to medicate to it.

When you have health insurance, you’ll be provided the money for the care and things like medication and treatment. But with individual major illness plan on top, you’ll also receive a bit of money to deal with other immediate costs, which often occur due to loss of income. If you are diagnosed with cancer, for example, you might not be able to wok and this could hurt your finances. You might even incur extra expenses like dealing with travel costs and so on.

Therefore, with a critical illness cover, you won’t have to dip into your savings, sell your home or borrow money just to get through some of the toughest times of your life.

Why having a major illness plan in place matters?

As alluded to above, having the right cover at a time of need is financially beneficial. While your medical insurance will guarantee you receive the right kind of care without any financial loss and your life insurance would provide financial aide if you were to die, a major illness plan ensures you deal with the immediate cost of getting sick. Because the cover is a lump sum that you are free to use as you seem fit, you can utilise it the best possible way. Whether it can help you with food costs, rent, travel or any other expense, the man thing is that it is there to help you financially.

In addition, the mental benefit of receiving this financial security can be enormous. When you fall critically ill, your mind will be filled with doubt and worry. You will have to fight hard to keep yourself focused on healing and recovering – having to worry about how to pay the bills is only going to make your situation worse. By removing this financial element out of the equation, you will be able to heal in peace.

Now, these two are obviously the benefits of having a major illness plan in place. But why do you need it in the first place? You’re young and healthy so why bother?

That is actually the best time to bother yourself with this type of insurance. This is because you won’t be able to obtain critical illness cover after you’re of certain age. The younger and healthier you are when you get it, the more affordable your policy will be. Not to mention, you will be able to save a lot more money and therefore, if you require the cover when you’re older, you’ll receive a bigger lump sum as a result.

How much to pay and where to get the right plan?

There is no right or wrong answer to how much you should have in your critical care cover plan. Many experts suggest that a minimum of five years worth of annual income should be the target. You will, of course, want to start making the monthly payments to receiving this as soon as possible and pay as much as possible from the start. You should naturally budget appropriately because you don’t want to get in debt just to get the right cover. It’s important to compare medical insurance and see what type of major illness plans they offer and for what cost. Comparison is easy and efficient online.