As the lady in the driver’s seat of the family, you are the superwoman juggling office and home responsibilities with great care to keep the juggernaut rolling. Come March 8 it is once again time to remind yourself of duties to self first and foremost. Your health and wellness must be among your top priorities.

In this regard, this Women’s Day, you must resolve to bolster your health insurance policy with a critical illness cover. What’s more, you can also get critical illness covers specifically tailored for women. Critical illness policies get triggered only upon diagnosis of serious, life-threatening ailments.

Serious and critical ailments such as cancer, stroke, liver disease, kidney failure, paralysis, and Parkinson’s disease, among others, are becoming more prevalent, sometimes even among the young.

In the unfortunate event of contracting a critical illness, you wouldn’t want your life goals to be affected due to outflows on treatments. It is in this aspect that an additional critical illness cover specific to women helps with lump-sum payouts to tide over the crisis. Of course, there is no substitute to a regular medical cover, but critical illness cover can sufficiently provide a layer of financial comfort while dealing with very serious illnesses.

A few insurers offer critical illness riders specifically directed at women. HDFC Ergo, Bajaj Allianz and Chola MS offer such covers. There are some ailments specific to women, especially with respect to cancers affecting specific organs. Cancer of breast, cervix, uterus, fallopian tube, ovary and vagina or vulva are prevalent among women. The treatment may involve chemotherapy, surgery, repair of organ, reconstructive surgery and the like and is very expensive.

In addition, there are a whole host of cardiac ailments, necessitating heart valve repair and so on. Then there may be comas and strokes of high severity.  

Critical illness cover tailored for women

HDFC Ergo’s Women CI Comprehensive Plan offers critical illness cover for sums ranging from ₹1 lakh to as much as ₹5 crore. For sum assured of up to ₹10 lakh and women aged under 45, there are no pre-policy check-ups.

The Women CI Comprehensive Plan covers 41 illnesses, including cancer, major ailments, surgical procedures and cardiac diseases and procedures. It even covers serious life-threatening complications during childbirth.

The waiting period or the minimum timeframe after which a claim can be made under the policy is in the range of 90-180 days for specific ailments. Also, the surviving period or the minimum time up to which a patient must be alive after diagnosis of any critical illness for any claim to be entertained is seven days.

For a 30-year-old woman, the gross rate per mille or in other words cost per ₹1,000 sum assured is ₹3.33. So, for ₹1 lakh cover, you would pay ₹333. In the case of a ₹10 lakh cover, it would be ₹3,333. You can also take larger covers, but do so when you are young so that the costs are low and pre-policy tests are minimal. You can take an independent critical illness cover or cover all the women in the family – sister, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, mother, daughter-in-law, niece etc. – with a single critical illness policy.

Bajaj Allianz’s Women Specific Critical illness also allows you to cover yourself and a few other women in the family. Women-specific cancers and a few other ailments are covered. But the sum assured is just ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh. There is a children’s education bonus (maximum ₹25,000) and a loss of job coverage ( ₹25,000) as well.

For a 30-year-old woman, the premium for a cover of ₹2 lakh is ₹938, excluding GST. The waiting period is 90 days.

Then there is the Chola Sarva Shakti Policy from Chola MS General Insurance which covers cancer and 39 other ailments. There are added benefits on child education, EMI and vehicle loan protection and a personal accident cover. A sum assured of up to ₹2 crore is available, according to the company’s website.

Of the three women-specific covers, HDFC Ergo’s Women CI Comprehensive Plan appears quite well-structured and comprehensive in terms of coverage as well as with the high sum assured made available to policyholders.

The thought of a critical illness and the treatment costs can be alarming. A critical illness policy will usually pay a lump-sum (the sum assured) in case of a serious and terminal illness, though in some cases a portion of the sum assured is only paid if a critical illness is still only in the minor stage and there are high chances of survival.

This Women’s Day, strengthen your health insurance cover with a critical illness policy and feel free to add more women and improve their coverage, too.

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