Imagine you went for a cancer screening and you found out that you have stage 1 colorectal cancer, which is a very common cancer type among cancer patients in Singapore, be it a man or a woman. Now at this stage, the cancer is growing inside your body, specifically in your rectum wall or colon, without affecting any nearby tissues. If you conduct surgery at this stage, there’s a very good possibility you’ll survive and lead a normal life. Now when you have a disease like cancer, a healthcare plan like early illness insurance in Singapore plan will help you in regards to money. But the problem arises when you realize that your plan will be valid not for stage 1 cancer but for stage 4 cancers in case of an early illness insurance plan. This is exactly where early phase critical illness insurance comes in. To understand the difference between the two and learn more about early phase critical illness insurance, keep reading.
What exactly is an early phase critical illness insurance plan?
Before we understand an early phase critical illness (CI) insurance plan, let us understand what a critical illness insurance plan is. When you are diagnosed with an illness that is covered by your plan, you will get a lump sum of money altogether, which you can use for your hospital bills and treatments. Now, this lump sum of money doesn’t depend on how much your hospital bill is; if the illness and severity of the illness fall under your critical illness insurance plans, you will get your money. In the case of a mediclaim, you usually get a part of your hospital bill as reimbursement, not the full sum of money like a critical illness insurance plan.
When you are diagnosed with a disease, for example, stage 1 colorectal cancer, you won’t get a full payout if you have a critical illness insurance plan. According to the plan, the disease isn’t critical enough. You obviously cannot wait for it to be critical; you will start operating on it right away but then who will cover the charges? That’s exactly where the early Phase critical illness insurance plan comes in. It covers the gap left by a normal CI plan and makes sure that even if your disease isn’t that critical, you will get a sum of money you can use.
What does an early phase critical illness insurance plan cover?
As the name suggests, an early phase CI plan covers all the expenses in the initial stages of a disease that doesn’t happen in the case of a regular CI plan. This is very much useful when a disease is caught in early screenings, and you can work with your doctor to cure it then and there. It is always suggested that your insurance amount should be almost around the salary you would earn in a year. Hence in this way, you will not need to worry about not working for some time as you recuperate from your illness in peace. Some early phase CI insurance plans also come with additional benefits like:
- They cover additional special conditions.
- Health checkups, which are complimentary.
- If you die, your family will receive a huge lump sum.
- After making a claim, further Premiums can be waived.
How to choose the best early-phase critical Illness insurance plan?
Choosing an early phase CI insurance plan might be more difficult than you would have previously imagined because there are a lot of companies on the market that are competing against each other with competitive pricing. You need to research and find out the company which is the best for you. Now, this is easier said than done. To help you make an informed decision, we have compiled a few things which you must keep in mind while choosing the best plan:
- Number of payouts: The number of payouts is very important when it comes to diseases like cancer. Cancer can take a long time to heal and might need a lot of money. Any critical illness plan will give you a one-time payout, and that’s it. They won’t pay even if the disease comes back, which can be a huge problem because cancer is not that easy to get rid of. So you must invest in a CI plan which has multiple payout options.
- Covered stages and illnesses: This is a critical step in choosing a CI insurance plan. You need to know before choosing a plan what the illnesses and stages it covers are. Most plans will typically cover the 37 critical illnesses as specified by the Life insurance association of Singapore. But some companies might have even more. What you need to check is whether the plan you are taking covers the disease which you are most likely to get or not, and regarding that disease, you must also check which stages of the disease are covered by the insurance.
- Waiting period: Almost all CI plans have a waiting period of 90 days from the day you took your insurance. And within that 90 days, if you are diagnosed with an illness, you won’t get any money for that. So it is always advisable that you take a CI plan at a much younger age so that the waiting period is not a problem.
Conclusion
It is important to have a CI insurance plan, but at the same time, having an early phase critical illness insurance plan is also important. A plan like a hong leong maid insurance in Singapore will give you much flexibility when it comes to insurance plans. You can always have these two plans separately from one plan, which has the features of both. In today’s world, it is very important to have an insurance plan which gives you flexibility which early Phase and a regular CI plan will give you. If you have it, then you wouldn’t need to worry about anything!
