A Critical Illness Rider Vs Standalone Critical Illness Plan

Who doesn’t want to be spoilt for choices? Be it attire, food, automobiles, holidays, or fun, we all want infinite choices and tend to choose the best! However, when it comes to health plans, too many options can become a bit tricky. Of course, the various options give you a plethora to choose from, but the tricky part is there due to the technical nature of the product. Not everyone is well-versed with the insurance terminology, and sometimes it becomes tough to get your way out of a technical maze. “Critical Illness Vs Standalone Critical” which is a better plan and we all face critical illness disease in our old age period of life.

Worry not! We are here to help you make the right decision by explaining the difference between a Critical Illness Vs Standalone Critical. Before we begin, let us make it clear that critical illnesses are those diseases that are life-threatening and generally require gigantic expenses for their medical care, treatment, and management. These include diseases like cancer, bypass surgery, kidney ailments, and the like. Since these critical illnesses require special attention, health insurance companies offer you the option to either add them to your current health or life insurance plan or buy a completely separate critical illness plan.

Ideally, it would depend on each to assess their needs and then select a plan.

The major differences between these two options are as follows:

1. Sum Assured

In the case of a critical illness rider, the sum assured is related to the base life insurance policy and cannot exceed it. But, a standalone critical illness plan can provide you coverage as per your requirements. A separate plan becomes more beneficial for those buyers, who require a higher cover to deal with complicated diseases owing to their susceptibility due to genetics or other factors.

2. Policy Term

The critical illness rider is associated with a base policy so the term lasts as long as the term of the basic plan is useful. In the case of standalone policy, the term lasts for five years, and then it has to be renewed. At the time of renewal, the insured has to undergo the medical tests again, and it is as good as buying a new plan. Also, in the case of a rider, the coverage will cease to exist the moment the basic plan expires and has to be re-insured.

3. Premium Payments

Critical illness rider plans are cheaper since they are associated with an existing base policy and they last over a long term as well. As the standalone plan needs to be renewed every five years, the premium amount tends to go higher due to increasing age and changes in the medical condition of the insured. As such due to individual health cover with substantial coverage, standalone plans attract higher premiums.

4. Number of Diseases

An autonomous policy will cover more critical illnesses compared to an add-on critical illness disease that is limited by the base insurance policy it is a part of. If you want to play extra safe and cover as many critical illnesses as possible in your health plan, you can select a standalone cover.

5. Number of Claims

With a critical illness rider, you can file a single claim during a policy year, but with a standalone policy, there is an option of filing for multiple claims within a policy year, subject to the conditions of your insurer.

6. Survival Clause

Both types of policies are similar in the way that they have a survival clause. This means that the insured must survive for a particular number of days from the date of diagnosis of the critical illness to receive any benefits.

Comparison between Critical Illness Vs Standalone Critical

Coverage Limitations – Basically, critical illness rider cover critical illness disease but this rider cover a fixed number of critical illness disease. Critical illness riders mean your base plan offers you a wide range of coverage of some of the best benefits that you can utilize in every possible way you want.  The standalone policy also offers you comprehensive coverage, and after diagnosed with any critical illness it’ll provide you financial help. The good thing about standalone critical illness is, there are no limitations of coverage and you can buy adequate cover as per your need.

Illness Limits –There is one problem with Critical Illness Rider and that is that it does not cover any disease until the disease has reached an advanced stage, like – if you are suffering from cancer and the cancer is still in its early stages. So Critical Illness Rider won’t cover it. To avoid this situation, you can go with a Standalone policy because with its help you get coverage at any stage of the disease.

Generally, to prevent many diseases, it is necessary to start the treatment at the right time, and Standalone proves to be helpful in fighting against the disease by covering your disease at an early stage.

Base Plan – To take advantage of critical illness rider, you will first have to buy a base plan of health policy or a term policy and after that, you will get rider benefit, with the help of ‘Rider benefit’ you can add critical illness as coverage in your policy. Talk about Standalone policy, it is a separate insurance product that you can buy on your own, it has no limitations and whatever you want it’ll cover you but the condition is you have to pay a higher premium.

Critical Illness Vs Standalone Critical, Which one is better for you?

We start thinking about something only when we need that thing, which one can be our right option between Critical Illness Rider and Standalone Critical Illness Plan. It depends on your need more than these plans, which plan you will choose or which plan can be right for you.

If convenience and price are important – Generally everyone wants his health plan or term plan to be comprehensive, and with the plan, he gets an opportunity to choose the right rider. You get the option of Critical Illness Rider with the base plan, due to which there is no stress on your premium and you do not need to put much effort into this. Buying a health or term policy is a basic need and you have enough time to claim. So, critical illness rider is just convenient and budget-friendly too.

If an adequate cover is important – If you are looking for adequate cover, you have to think about a standalone policy because it offers you an unlimited range of coverage as you want and it demands only two things. First is, sum insured for the coverage as you want and the second thing is you have submitted your current health report after that they cover you.

As you can see both have their own merits and demerits compared to each other. The final decision will be yours based on a thorough analysis of your requirements. Make the best decision as your life is at stake!