What you need to know about critical illness insurance

Sometimes in life, everything is going great and then you get sick. That part is bad enough. But what if your illness requires expensive treatments or time away from work? Critical illness insurance is an inexpensive way to protect yourself.

Critical illness insurance pays you a tax-free lump sum if you are diagnosed with some of the most common serious illnesses, such as cancer, heart attack and stroke. You can use the money to make your recovery easier and your life better, such as paying for drugs, treatment south of the border, making your home more accessible or covering time off work for you or someone who cares for you.

“The last thing we want to happen when you fall ill, is that you have to dip into your retirement savings or emergency fund that you have worked so hard to build up.”-Scott Loney, Head of Insurance at Planswell.

If a financial setback of tens of thousands of dollars would hurt your current lifestyle or your future retirement ambitions, critical illness insurance is definitely something to think about. Consider these scenarios:  

• You’re just starting out. Early in your career, you may not have much in terms of savings and investments yet, so a financial setback could put you deep in debt.
• You’re well on your way. What would happen to the investments you’ve spent years building up if you had to cover the costs of getting sick? Check out this insurance investment calculator to see how much critical illness insurance can help.
• Money is tight. In this scenario, falling ill can be the difference between maintaining your lifestyle or having to rack up debt to pay for treatments and expenses.

There are quite a few things that you’ll want to consider about critical illness insurance such as what conditions are covered. Not every policy is the same. For example, some policies only cover three illnesses while others cover more than 20. You might also want to Google about the surprising number of expenses that are not covered by public healthcare plans. The financial risk is real. As with all types of insurance, you want to apply while you are still as young and as healthy as possible.

While it’s easy to call up any insurance agent and accept the first quote you receive, you’ll want to go somewhere that shops the market to find you the right price from the right insurer. Planswell can help with that. We work with a variety of industry-leading providers and will research the best policy to protect you.