Best Critical Illness Insurance

Quick Look: Best Critical Illness Insurance Carriers

• Mutual of Omaha
• Breeze
• AIG
• Liberty Mutual
• Aflac

Even if you have health insurance, recovering from a critical illness can take a serious financial toll on you and your family. Depending on the severity of the condition, you may not be able to return to work for weeks or months, during which time your family may struggle to pay day-to-day expenses. Critical illness insurance is a unique type of protection that can potentially save you from being forced to file for bankruptcy if you’re diagnosed with a critical illness or condition. 

The Best Critical Illness Insurance

When it comes to facing a critical illness and the lingering medical expenses, having a comprehensive health insurance plan can sometimes only be half of the battle. If you’re severely injured or you contract a major illness, you may need to undergo multiple surgeries and periods of bed rest until you’re fully healed. A recovery period like this means everything from taking time off from work to scheduling assistance with day-to-day tasks like doing laundry and cooking meals, which can put even a well-prepared family under financial stress.

Critical illness insurance can help you pay for things that your health insurance doesn’t cover while you’re recovering. From alternative medicine to groceries and mortgage payments, critical illness insurance coverage can help you rest with the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re protected in the event of a life-threatening illness.  

If being unable to work would mean serious financial trouble for your family, you should consider a critical illness insurance policy to cover medical costs and help you keep money in your pocket. Begin your search with a few of the recommended providers below. 

Mutual of Omaha

Mutual of Omaha can be a viable choice for your critical illness insurance if you’re looking for a policy with flexibility. Mutual of Omaha allows you to choose a benefit amount between $10,000 and $100,000, and you can also choose a term as short as 10 years or as long as a lifetime. You’ll receive your benefit as a lump sum, and you can use it in any way you choose. Mutual of Omaha’s coverage is also notable because it includes coverage for conditions not covered with other insurance providers like blindness and deafness.

Coverage from Mutual of Omaha is available for applicants between the ages of 18 and 64. While you must work with an agent before you can get a quote, this feature can be a benefit if you prefer a more personalized insurance shopping experience. 

Breeze

Breeze offers both disability and critical illness insurance that helps you get back on your feet. You can take out this insurance to protect yourself (or your employees) from a host of issue, including:

• Major organ transplants
• Stroke
• Kidney failure
• Cancer
• Advanced Alzheimer’s disease

You can choose how much you believe the policy should be worth, and when you file a claim, you get a lump sum payout that can help you get back on your feet and manage such a condition.

AIG

If you’re searching for a policy with the highest possible benefit, you might want to consider exploring insurance options with AIG. AIG offers critical illness insurance policies with benefits of up to $500,000, which is significantly higher than competitors. You can also purchase a policy that’s valid for your entire lifetime through AIG if you choose.

AIG also allows you to customize your policy through optional riders. For example, you can purchase enhanced critical illness coverage, which extends AIG’s standard critical illness insurance to include additional coverage of more than 50 conditions. AIG also offers coverage for children under your policy up to 75%. 

Aflac

Aflac offers guaranteed critical illness insurance policies. This means that you won’t need to complete a health questionnaire before you’re approved for a policy. Every dependent child in your household is also covered under your Aflac policy at 50% of costs incurred. Aflac also claims that most of its payouts are issued just a few days after they’ve been submitted.

Aflac’s critical illness insurance coverage extends to the most common conditions covered on these policies as well as some unique inclusions (like coverage for bone marrow transplants). Though Aflac’s coverage limits are lower than some competitors — you can buy a policy with a benefit of up to $20,000 — its benefits for dependent children can make Aflac a strong choice for families. 

How Does Critical Illness Insurance Work?

Critical illness insurance is an additional medical plan you can purchase that will help you cover expenses beyond your medical bills following a diagnosis of a critical illness. Some things that critical illness health insurance can pay for may include:

• Coverage for treatments not traditionally covered by health insurance
• Day-to-day living expenses while you are unable to work because of your condition (rent, mortgage payments, groceries)
• Transportation to and from appointments at treatment centers
• The cost of modifying your home or vehicle to meet safety standards based on your condition — for example, outfitting a van with a wheelchair ramp)

These policy benefits are typically paid out in cash, meaning that there are a range of options on how you can use your payout. If you’re terminally ill or you need a place to recuperate following a major diagnosis, you may even be able to use your insurance payout to take a vacation with loved ones. But you should also make sure the covered illness you’re most concerned about is listed.

Critical illness insurance is not the same thing as health insurance — while you can depend on your health insurance to pay for your treatments no matter your condition, critical illness insurance policies usually only offer coverage in limited circumstances. For example, your insurance policy might specify that you can only file a claim following a heart attack, stroke or cancer diagnosis. This limitation on coverage is part of the reason why these policies are exceptionally affordable.

The Advantages of Critical Illness Insurance

Even if you have health insurance, you may want to consider a critical illness insurance policy. Some of the most important benefits you’ll have access to when you purchase this type of insurance policy include the following.

Assistance paying for health insurance-related costs: Even if you have a fantastic health insurance policy, your insurance won’t cover some expenses following a critical illness diagnosis. If you have a critical illness insurance policy, you’ll have assistance paying your deductible, copayments and coinsurance charges. When used together with your health insurance, these two coverages can make finances following an accident significantly more manageable.

Affordable coverage: Critical illness insurance is very affordable. Depending on your coverages and the company you work with, you might pay as little as $12 a month for your critical illness insurance coverage.

Paid out in a lump sum: When your claim is approved following a critical illness diagnosis, you’ll receive your payment as a lump sum of cash. This means that you can use the benefit in any way that you see fit. 

Drawbacks of Critical Illness Insurance

Some of the drawbacks of investing in critical illness plans include the following.

Limited coverages: Critical illness insurance is affordable because it offers coverage only after very specific diagnoses. You may not ever end up using the benefits that you’ve paid for. Be sure to review your list of covered conditions before you purchase a policy to be sure that you know when your insurance does and does not apply.  

Not everyone will qualify for coverage: Insurance companies place limitations on who can and cannot enroll in a critical illness insurance policy. For example, if you’re over the age of 64, you’ll have a very tough time finding an insurer to provide you with coverage because major illnesses are much more common past this age. If you have a pre-existing condition, it will also likely be excluded from coverage. 

Frequently Asked Questions