If you’re diagnosed with a serious medical condition, the stress from incoming medical fees and not being able to work won’t just affect your finances. It can take a toll on your family as well, and affect their quality of life as much as your own. Safeguarding your own financial future as well as your family’s can mean the difference between drawing down on savings or taking out loans to keep up with the costs of a critical illness.
If you have Life Insurance, your family’s already covered in the event of your death. But what if you need to take a period-of-time off work to recover from an accident or sudden illness? As MLC’s trauma insurance policy, Critical Illness Insurance offers financial assistance for those who have been diagnosed with a critical illness or injury by paying a lump sum benefit. If you have to take time off work and are unable to earn an income, you could use this to help cover the costs of immediate medical bills, pay for additional living expenses that occur because of your condition, and to help out with any debts you already have.
What conditions trigger a payout?
There are two types of Critical Illness Insurance you can apply for, and each type of insurance has its own set of medical conditions that could trigger a payout.
Depending on your type of insurance, you could get covered for:
- Aplastic anaemia
- Brain tumours
- Blindness
- Coma
- Lung failure
- HIV
- Heart attack
- Malignant Cancer
- Major burns
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Loss of independance
While most of MLC’s defined critical conditions don’t have a qualifying period, some require a qualifying period of up to 6 months. This means that if you were to suffer from a particular medical condition, you won’t be covered until after this waiting period is over. Some of these medical conditions include stroke, heart attack, malignant cancer, and heart valve surgery.
What sort of cover can I get?
Depending upon your life circumstance and budget, you’ll need to decide between two different types of Critical Illness Insurance. These are:
- Critical Illness Plus
Provides benefits for a full range of 41 medical conditions. You’ll also be eligible for extra benefits at an additional cost.
- Critical Illness Standard
Provides cover for 5 basic medical conditions at a cheaper premium.
What’s included?
In addition to a lump sum payout of up to $2 million, MLC’s Critical Illness Insurance also offers:
- Child support benefit
If you hold Critical Illness Plus, uou can include your children on your insurance plan if you’re insured for over $100,000. If your child dies or suffers from one of MLC’s defined medical conditions, you could receive a payout of up to $10,000 to cover the costs of medical fees or immediate funeral expenses.
- Financial planning benefit
MLC will reimburse you for up to $5,000 if you need to seek financial advice after receiving a payout of $100,000 or more.
- Economiser
You can freeze your premiums if you’re over 30. The premium you pay then stays the same while your benefit will reduce each year.
- Death benefit
If you hold your insurance as a stand-alone product and die within 14 days of suffering from a critical condition, MLC will pay your nominated beneficiaries an additional $5,000.
- Business safeguard option
For an additional cost, you can increase your insurance for business purposes for certain business events. A business event is when the value of your financial interest in the business, loan guarantee, or the value of the Key Person to your business increases.
If you have Critical Illness Plus, you can also enjoy a number of extra-cost benefits, such as increasing your insurance without medical evidence, a partial benefit option, and a critical illness buy-back option.
Want to compare MLC’s Critical Illness with other trauma insurance policies? You can compare this cover with others in the market through our free quote service.
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