The Importance of Critical Illness Insurance

Do you need serious medical insurance? It can be hard to imagine yourself in a situation where you may need to apply for critical health insurance; however, it is important to know that the most important thing to prepare for is not the chance that you may be affected by a serious illness, but the emotional, physical, and financial costs of surviving that illness. Living with an even more serious illness is challenging and expensive. Your recovery may also leave you with the cost of health care services, prescription drugs and supplements, the cost of home care, the cost of repairing or replacing a home with new access requirements, child care, and other costs that may not be covered by your state health insurance plan. You may have to travel to get the medicine or treatment you need, or you may simply need to travel to get the weather that is best suited for your mental, emotional, or physical healing. On top of all this, you have your normal household debts and potential disruptions to your operations. The financial consequences of a serious illness add up quickly.

Despite all these opportunities, many people - especially Canadians - underestimate the financial impact of a serious illness. Why is it so common for Canadians to ignore their need for serious illness insurance? Yes, we have free health care, don't we? So why should we need to invest more in the financial collateral we already have? The fact of the matter is that our health care does not cover all the costs a serious illness can cause us to accumulate and the coverage we provide may not arrive soon enough if you are left sitting on the waiting list for too long.

Let's look at an example: Imagine that you have just been called to a doctor's office. Your last test revealed that you have cancer and need chemo treatment right away. In Ontario, your waiting period to start treatment is four weeks or you can go to Buffalo and start treatment tomorrow, but it will cost you $ 40,000. Serious illness insurance can help you pay for that cost, and maybe even travel expenses to Buffalo for your treatment.

But that is not all. As we have already noted, your illness comes with other financial consequences — such as your inability to work suddenly. Suddenly, your daily expenses have become quite stressful, and all of this is compounded by the fact that your partner is also taking a break from work to take you to the doctor. Those charges will start to accumulate, and even after you have been given a clean health certificate, you still need time to recover physically from your treatment (as well as from complete mental and emotional trauma). You will not want to rush back to work to start dealing with these payments.

Cancer is not the only disease that can have this effect. Serious illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, epilepsy, etc.

How reasonable is trust in alternatives?

Many people feel that they can rely on their partners, retirement savings, property sales, or government assistance in case they find themselves in need, but you do not want to be left out when you have to trust that these options come at the right time. In many cases, it would be unreasonable to rely on these options. Also, critical illness insurance can provide you with other benefits, such as:

Providing coverage for unpaid expenses for our health care system: Essential health insurance can help pay for some of the costs of certain medications or other treatments that you would have to pay out of pocket.

Protecting your retirement: You do not want to spend your retirement savings to cover the costs of your illness - those savings have a purpose, and you do not want to sacrifice your future life or your ability to retire when you want. Essential health insurance provides the financial assistance you need to prevent the need to go into that insurance to keep your retirement plans in order.

In addition, critical illness insurance is designed to:

Reduce debt and other financial anxieties while dealing with your illness

Replace your reduced or lost income with your spouse

Cover the cost of bringing extra help home

Providing the opportunity and ability to think about new treatments and medicines that are not covered by private or government health insurance schemes