By: Arjun
Organ transplants are now successfully carried out worldwide, involving harvesting any key organ from a donor’s body and placement within the recipient’s body accordingly. This may be performed only after multiple checks or tests to ascertain whether the recipient and donor are fully compatible with the process. This surgery is usually done for several major organs, including the kidney, lungs, liver, heart, and others.
The procedure is usually very costly, with treatment charges hovering between Rs. 10-20 lakh or even more. Such exigencies can either drain one’s savings or make them borrow money for treatments. This situation can be avoided if one is covered by a suitable insurance plan that can provide both, life cover as well as a cover for illnesses like these. A big question that most people have is whether critical illness cover offers coverage for organ transplants. Let us learn more about it in detail.
Are Organ Transplants Covered Under Term Insurance Plans?
You must already know what is a term insurance plan. It is a policy that provides basic life coverage to policyholders for a specific duration, with guaranteed payouts in the event of their demise within the policy period. Although these plans pay out benefits to the nominees only in case of the policyholder’s demise, the coverage can be enhanced by adding riders, ensuring benefits for events that are otherwise not covered by a base term plan. One of these riders is a critical illness rider, under which it is possible to get financial assistance for illnesses like organ transplants, subject to the policy terms and conditions.
What do we mean by critical illness coverage?
You can take critical illness cover as an add-on for your term policy. This is sometimes known as the critical illness benefit and is a vital rider for any term insurance plan. These are plans tailored to cover expenditure on the treatment of severe or life-threatening ailments. Coverage also includes medicines, doctor and hospital visits, ongoing treatments, hospitalization, consultations, and so on. With these plans, the policyholder becomes eligible to receive a certain percentage of the life coverage amount, or a particular sum assured, upon the diagnosis of any critical illness that is covered by the rider. The amount may then be used for treatment and meeting other requirements as well.
Organ Transplants and Critical Illness Riders
There are several advantages of getting a rider for critical illness with your term policy that covers organ transplant surgeries:
A lump sum amount is paid upon diagnosis of the critical illness, i.e., when the surgery must be done.
You will get higher and more sizable coverage at comparatively lower premiums. You can always use an online term insurance calculator to calculate the premium based on the add-ons and total coverage amount.
You can also avail of tax benefits on the plan under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act of 1961.
Some factors that you should keep in mind
Term insurance policies vary across insurance companies. There are numerous kinds of organ transplants, and understanding which ones are covered by your particular policy is essential when purchasing any term insurance plan. Any health condition leading to organ failure is another vital aspect noted by insurance providers prior to giving term insurance coverage.
For instance, if any kidney ailment happens due to unhealthy consumption of liquor, then getting term insurance coverage is not possible. It is advisable to read your policy document carefully to understand what is covered and under what circumstances.
Summing Up
Critical illness insurance coverage adds that extra layer of financial protection to policyholders. Life is unpredictable, and you can never forecast what will happen. Therefore, you should strive to safeguard the financial future of your family with a critical illness rider that covers not only organ transplants but also other ailments of a serious nature. This adds to your term insurance policy, which secures your life and ensures that your family is financially comfortable in the event of your untimely demise within the policy period.
