Why we launched a critical illness health insurance plan

When we began the process of filing a product within the health insurance category, the options of the product design were many. However, we went with the critical illness product as it will enable many Indians manage the financial burden that arises when a critical illness strikes within the family. At Bajaj Allianz Life we are working to help Indians get their life goals done, and with this product, we’d like to enable them to keep their life goals journey on track and not be severely impacted due to a health obstacle.  

The product – Bajaj Allianz Life Health Care Goal – is an outcome of brilliant life insurance minds coming together, leveraging the learnings each of us have had in our time managing health insurance as a category, and challenging the boundaries that lay ahead of us. Of course, customer benefit always remained at the centre of our approach. 

Critical illness, when it strikes impacts the entire family. We know that a family’s routine suddenly gets changed and is dictated by how, when or where the one family member is getting treated. We have heard, seen or even experienced the life style changes within a family when one of the members gets diagnosed with a critical illness. We rarely account for the income loss, in case the illness were to hit the main bread-winner of the family. Further, we do not know the extent of expenses coming our way – from medicines, to diagnostic labs, second opinions, or the expense towards travel? Have we ever accounted for all this while preparing our house-hold budgets? More often than not, the response is a no. We’d like to believe it will not happen to us, but having worked within this industry, it has taught me to be prepared for the uncertainties of the future. This product, is about how to manage the financial uncertainties during the time when a critical illness is diagnosed.

So should you have a critical illness cover in your portfolio? Do you wonder about what will happen to the money you invest in it, and for all good reasons never get to use this cover? Here’s my take on these questions. 

• As a thumb rule, always have a critical illness cover in addition to the health insurance plan you may have or one that is provided by your organisation. The combination of these plans will help you manage your healthcare expenses efficiently. 
• A critical illness health insurance plan is designed to financially help you tide over the critical illness. You will get a lump sum pay out on diagnosis of the illness, which you can use to manage all the other associated expenses, and not break any FDs or dip into other savings or ask for financial help. 
• Keeping customer benefit at the centre of our product design, we ensured Bajaj Allianz Life Health Care Goal was helpful in every way to the policy holder. Hence, we introduced the Family and individual cover, where a policyholder can cover their entire family (up to six members) under one policy with one premium. Every family member is covered by a separate sum assured and a claim made for one member does not reduce the sum assured of others. This way, the family continues to have a critical illness cover despite a claim being made in the policy.
• Our Return of Premium feature ensures all the premium paid towards the policy is returned at the end of the term, in case no claim has been made in the policy (Feature available in two variants of Bajaj Allianz Life Health Care Goal). 

Health is most essential and each of us must invest in staying fit and healthy. At the same time, we need to invest to tide over some uncertainties the future may hold for us. We went out to deliver a critical illness health insurance plan that was practical, simple and effective. And it turned out to be a product for today’s India.