What Is Critical Illness Insurance?
Critical. Illnesses. Both words already sound so bad on their own, but the since there are infinite possibilities in this world, why not put the words together to mean something else that is completely terrible? Heart attack! Cancer! Stroke! Coronary artery bypasses, and kidney failure! The critical illness list goes on and on!
These are terrible, terrible illnesses. So terrible and so urgent when you get them, you would be in critical danger if not treated immediately and carefully. That is why it’s called critical illnesses!
Now in insurance, a critical illness insurance rider would mean something else. If you buy life insurance, you typically only get to claim your benefits/your payout if one of the two things happen to you:
You die, or you become disabled.
But Manulife ManuProtect Term-Life Insurance gives you the flexibility to receive money too if you are diagnosed with one of any five critical illnesses, in a form of a critical illness insurance rider. Wa-wa-wait! Manulife what?
What is ManuLife ManuProtect Term-Life Insurance???
Manulife.
ManuProtect.
Term Life Insurance.
It sounds like a mouthful, so let me give a summary.
Manulife is the insurance company’s name.
ManuProtect, just one of their brands.
Term life insurance, which covers you for a fixed amount of time, as opposed to…
whole life, which covers you for the rest of your life.
This term-life insurance policy covers you just like any other term-life insurance policy: death arising from natural causes, total permanent disability, and death arising from an accident.
Let’s do a quick crash course on Term-Life benefits, to put things into perspective. Death resulted from natural and accidental causes can be protected by ManuProtect. If the insured passes away during the coverage period, the benefit will then be paid to the beneficiary. Term Insurance is typically the least expensive way to purchase a substantial death payout on a coverage amount per ringgit basis over a specific period of time.
Another useful benefit is the Permanent Disability benefit which takes care of your wellbeing, if you are forced out of work as a result of a permanent disability.
The Critical Illness Insurance Rider
But with a little extra premium, Manulife will pay you out 30% of the sum you insured for immediately, once you are diagnosed with the following critical illnesses below.
Why would Manulife do this however? These illnesses are critical, and they require immediate attention with the fullest attention from doctors and surgeons and nurses and hospital administrators.
1 second could either mean life or death for these people. And since afflicted spouses, partners, families, or children would not have time to worry about paying for emergency surgeries, that is where the Critical Illness Insurance Rider comes in to help pay for illnesses below the term life policy covers.
Oh yeah. Insurance rider actually just means top up in insurance lingo.
The Critical Illness List That Manulife Manuprotect Covers
Cancer
Death rate: 13% in government hospitals (Health Ministry, 2014)
Incidence: 25% people by the time they reach 75 y.o. (Health Ministry, 2016)
Examples: Breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, cervical cancer, etc.
Treatments: Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, etc.
Heart attack
Death rate: 13.5% (DOSM, 2014)
Incidence: 45% already have risk factors
Risk factors: Obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes
Treatments: Angioplasty, beta blockers, coronary artery bypass graft
Stroke
Death rate: 26 per 100,000 people; when you are between the age of 60-80, it shoots up to 1000 per 100,000 people
Incidence: 6 strokes occurring every hour (DOSM, 2010)
Treatments: Identifying a stroke and sending the patient to the hospital ASAP; clot-busting medication
Warning signs: Sudden numbness of face/limbs, sudden loss of vision, sudden confusion in speaking, etc.
Coronary Artery Bypass
What is this: done to create a new path around significantly blocked or narrowed coronary arteries to facilitate sufficient flow of blood and nutrients into the heart muscles. The complete or partial block in arteries is caused by coronary heart disease (CAD) – the accumulation of plaque on the walls of the arteries, resulting in Angina or chest pain due to inadequate supply of oxygen to the heart muscles
Kidney Failure
Incidence: 40,000 required dialysis (2015), 10,000 forecasted in 2020 (Bujang et al., 2017)
Examples: Chronic post-renal kidney failure, chronic pre-renal kidney failure, etc.
Treatments: Dialysis, kidney transplant
Below is a picture version, because why not:
What Could You Do Now
No one likes to think of bad things happening to them, so insurance becomes merely an afterthought. It shouldn’t: it should be a forward thinking plan to handle your own finances.
Insurance jargons can be daunting, and sometimes you harbour this skepticism towards the effectiveness of insurance. Which is why we exist! We are ultimately your dots connector to help you understand insurance in a fun and intuitive manner, and in this case, a life insurance cover. We take painstaking hours to search and find the best insurance plans for you.
In terms of planning, you could start planning now with Manulife ManuProtect Term Life Insurance. Have a look at PolicyStreet’s nifty website here for the easiest descriptions to inform yourself about life insurance.
Yes. It sounds like a mouthful. But a mouthful is better than having what ifs and could haves during dire and desperate moments.
That’s because for as low as RM5 a month, this term-life insurance policy does cover a lot of things, including the peace and sanity of the mind. And whilst you’re at it, add on the 5 critical illness insurance riders for extra protection.
To sum it all up, in the Manulife ManuProtect product, the option to include Critical Illness List Insurance called Accelerated Critical Illness Rider offers an advance 30% of the plan’s face amount should you be diagnosed with one of the specified critical illnesses. Critical support is indeed important when you’re battling against time to recover.
If you like to know more about insurance or have any general insurance questions, visit www.PolicyStreet.com to find out more, and do not be shy to speak to us! We would be delighted to assist you.
