#Online Plans | 12 MIN READ

Can Your Online Term Plan Be Your Family’s 3 AM Friend?

When it comes to your family, you have never made a compromise be it buying your home, children’s school or vacations. You follow a financial plan since you want to leave nothing to chance. But will your plan be good enough to help your finances absorb the shock of expensive critical illnesses like heart disease and cancer?

Many people don’t realise the real risks from critical illnesses such as cancer and heart diseases and how expensive their treatment are. Take the case of cancer.

According to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) estimates, in 2016, the total number of new cancer cases was expected to be around 14.5 lakh. The figure will reach nearly 17.3 lakh new cases in 2020.

Now, here’s a glimpse of the costs. A month’s treatment for Renal Cell Carcinoma using Pfizer’s Sunitinib would cost about Rs 1.75 lakh. On the other hand, treatment using BMS’s Dasatinib for leukemia would cost Rs 1.6 lakh per month.

Evidently, you need a plan to protect your family to deal with the worst. This is where a smart and flexible online term plan can be of help. Here’s how.

Typically, smart and flexible term plans ensure that the family is financially assisted even during important stages of critical illnesses such as terminal phase of cancer. This is done through a lump sum payment made through a conversion option. This helps the family pay for the treatment and other costs.

If critical illness covered like cancer is detected at the terminal stage, the spouse can receive the lump sum amount at a pre-determined conversion. Here’s an illustration.

If a person has life insurance coverage of Rs 1 crore from the online term plan and the conversion rate for cancer is 71%, the beneficiary or the spouse, would receive a lump sum amount of Rs 71 lakh. For a higher life insurance amount, say, Rs 2 crore, the plan would pay the beneficiary the lump sum amount i.e. Rs 71 lakh. It will continue to provide life insurance coverage of Rs 1 crore.

Clearly, there is a case for having a flexible online term plan and ensuring a more full-proof financial protection. After all, every family needs a 3 am friend, doesn’t it?

Hindustan Times, December 5 2016

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Patients

Key message

Get an online term plan that will help your family have the large amount of money required if you have a critical illness like cancer or a heart disease