What you need to know about critical illness

In Singapore, an average of 17 lives are lost to heart diseases or stroke every day. That’s one in every three deaths caused by cardiovascular disease, according to the Singapore Heart Foundation — and that statistic has steadily increased over the years. That’s why insurance policies protecting against critical illness is becoming an important pillar of financial security.

Before committing to the first one you see, it’s important to understand what exactly critical illness is, and the kinds of coverage you should be looking for.

What Is Critical Illness?

As its name suggests, critical illness — or CI for short — refers to severe illnesses that may affect your mobility or quality of life.

Depending on which insurer you’re looking at, CIs are also sometimes referred to as dread diseases or critical care illnesses.

The Life Insurance Association Singapore lists definitions for 37 kinds of severe stage critical illnesses, including:

• Heart attack of specified severity
• Stroke with permanent neurological deficit
• Major cancer
• End stage kidney failure
• Coronary artery by-pass surgery
• Blindness (Irreversible loss of sight)
• Paralysis (Irreversible loss of use of limbs)
• Irreversible loss of speech
• Deafness (Irreversible loss of hearing)
• Heart attack of specified severity

While the definitions behind critical illnesses may change from time to time, cancer, heart attack and stroke make up 90% of critical illness claims in Singapore¹.

Let’s take a look at the primary causes of death in Singapore, based on MOH 2016-2018 statistics on the top 10 principle causes of death:

1. 1. Cancer
   2. Pneumonia
   3. Ischaemic heart diseases
   4. Cerebrovascular diseases (including stroke)
   5. External causes of morbidity and mortality
   6. Hypertensive diseases (including heart disease) and Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome & nephrosis
   7. Other heart diseases
   8. Urinary tract infection
   9. Chronic obstructive lung diseases
   10. Diabetes mellitus

Critical Illness Insurance: Benefits and Coverage

Insuring yourself can make a significant difference to your family’s future and financial security.

Here are three common examples of insurance plan types that are available in the market for you to consider for critical illness.

1. 1. • Critical Illness Cover (as a rider/add-on in a life insurance plan)
      • Hospital Plans
      • Early Critical Illness Cover

Although critical illness coverage may be offered as an add-on for standard life insurance plans, it may not necessarily be comprehensive enough — particularly if your top concerns are specific to protection from 90% of critical illness claims¹ arising from early-stage cancer, and disorders⁵ related to heart attack and stroke.

While a hospital plan may cover you for all hospital-related expenses, what happens once you’ve been discharged? You may still need financial support to cope with follow-up treatments, or even just to take a break from work for a while.

That’s where a critical illness-specific policy could fill the gap. Depending on the definitions listed under your insurance plan, you may receive a partial or full payout in the event of an unfortunate diagnosis.

Consider plans like FWD Big 3 Critical Illness insurance

 An insurance plan like the FWD Big 3 Critical Illness offers coverage for the most common CIs: cancer, heart attack and stroke, with the following benefits:

1. 1. • A one-time full payout² for all stages of cancer, or in the event of a heart attack or stroke
      • Available coverage for one year with a guaranteed option to renew up to age 85
      • Get $50,000 of coverage from as low as $18/month³
      • A death benefit lump sum of S$20,000
      • Coverage options of S$100,000 and S$200,000 are available

FWD Big 3 Critical Illness insurance covers Cancer, Heart Attack and Stroke, which makes up 90% of all critical illness claims¹. You can get this plan at as low as  1/3⁴ of the cost of a regular critical illness plan.

You can also consider enhancing your FWD Big 3 Critical Illness Cover with two available riders:

1. 1. • Heart Disorders – which covers 13 surgical heart procedures⁵
      • Neurological Disorders – which covers 11 surgical neurological procedures⁵

Can I Get Double-Insured for CI Coverage?

FWD Big 3 Critical Illness insurance can be bought⁶ in addition to an existing critical illness plan.

Choosing the right coverage for your protection needs requires careful planning, and weighing what might give you the most assurance — so do work out what you need before signing up for the first plan you see.

Find out more about the full benefits of FWD Big 3 Critical Illness insurance here.