Critical Illness Insurance
Is it Right for You?
Now that you're a new parent, your number one focus is caring for your baby. But, what if the unthinkable happens and you are diagnosed with a serious illness? Critical Illness Insurance can be an excellent addition to your current life insurance coverage by providing you with a financial cushion at a time when you need it most. Unlike Life Insurance, the benefit is paid directly to you rather than to a beneficiary.
Health experts agree that a major barrier to recovery from illness is stress and one of the key contributors to stress is worry over money. Critical illness insurance can fill the financial gap often created between health insurance plans and the considerable costs that can occur from a serious illness. It pays out a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a serious disease like cancer, stroke or heart attack. There are no restrictions on how you use it. That money may allow you to seek treatment outside the country or pay for drugs not covered under your health care plan. Critical illness insurance can also provide you with the means to continue to meet your family's day-to-day needs by covering child care costs, home care or household help. Or, after you recover, you and your family might want to take a much-needed vacation.
Most companies have some form of disability plan but often these plans don't cover the full salaried amount. Critical illness insurance could be used to supplement your income while you recover. A stay-at-home parent should consider critical illness insurance even more seriously. As non-wage-earners, they wouldn't qualify for disability insurance.
Your insurance provider will be happy to tell you more about how critical illness insurance can work for you and your family.
Information provided by BMO Insurance, a division of BMO Financial Group