It was just luck that my friend called me to tell me…”I am buying critical illness cover of Rs 50L for myself, my wife and my son”. I guffawed. Laughed would be too polite.

I said “Idiot CI is not for you”.

He was stunned. He thought he was being very smart because he had heard me talk about insurance at some places. I said “CI is for people who are working and have a financial value for missing work”. You have no such worry. He is past financial freedom. He is 45 years of age, wife is 39 years of age and have adequate passive income. He is the last client for Critical Illness.

CI is for a person for whom a 3 month break from his / her job can mean unpaid EMI, insurance premium, etc. Such a person may take some CI cover. A person who is financially free does not need to take any critical illness cover. Elementary dear friend.

While different insurance providers provide coverages for different number of illnesses, ranging approximately between 10 to 30 illnesses, some of the commonly covered critical illnesses may include Heart Attack, Cancer, Stroke, Coma, Paralysis, Coronary Bypass Surgery, Loss of Limbs, Kidney Failure, Severe burns, Parkinson Disease, Loss of Speech, Major Organ transplant, Multiple sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, etc. There are some criteria to be met in terms of severity and stage of the illness in certain cases. The coverage and scope of each policy should be checked in the proposal form/policy document.

Some of these illnesses are difficult to understand. Seriously. Medicine is difficult to understand. Law is difficult to understand. Insurance is difficult to understand.

Huge problem Critical Illness…is at the cross section of all these 3.

If you are not financially free, ..and you think an illness will impact your earnings…take CI. Get a good agent. Make sure you understand what you are buying.

I have a CI cover of Rs. 5L. Frankly it should not matter to me whether Hdfc life insurance pays the claim or not. It is too small…and I do not trust them as a policy holder. I would rather trust them as a shareholder.