FAQ #15 What is the essence of critical illness insurance? Whom is it for?

The need for critical illness insurance is probably bigger than for any other type of insurance because

Shortly, this kind of protection is basically for everyone.

Critical illness insurance (CI) protects the increasing number of people who survive certain life threatening situations. This kind of policy, usually (but with some exceptions):

The list of covered conditions varies among companies, but there is a common core of the most frequent critical illnesses: heart attack, stroke, cancer, coronary bypass surgery. Besides, most companies cover fewer or more of the following: kidney failure, Multiple Sclerosis, paralysis, organ transplant, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, coma, severe burns, blindness, deafness, loss of speech, loss of limbs, occupational HIV infection, motor neuron disease. Usually for some extra premium, buyers can often add a long-term care type benefit (Loss of Independence rider) as well to the policy.

Buying life insurance on children’s lives is often a debatable issue, and in most cases it is unwarranted or a mistake. In contrast, children critical illness insurance is a kind of protection that does make a lot of sense (especially if the parents have already got it), considering the

Some CI policies, either for adults or children, provide cash value not only at maturity, but also at earlier, optional surrender of the policy. These plans certainly cannot be viewed as real investments, but looking at them as very secure savings plans is probably a good description.