The Future Generali Heart and Health Insurance plan is a critical illness (CI) plan. While the plan as such covers 59 critical illnesses — the most CI plan in the market offers today — the heart plan under options 1 and 3 of the policy covers 18 illnesses.

CI plans can’t be a replacement for a regular mediclaim health policy, where you are covered for the hospitalisation costs, but they are necessary to take care of the large non-medical and incidental costs following treatment for any critical illness.

CI plans pay the sum assured under the policy in one lump-sum on diagnosis of the listed illnesses.

What’s on offer?

The plan provides four options — one, a heart cover with a total of 18 critical illnesses related to the heart and, two, a critical illness cover for heart-related, cancer-related and other CI conditions, covering 59 illnesses, including minor and moderate conditions.

In options 3 and 4, there is a promise on return of premium — the insurer will return all the premiums paid when the policy matures (option 3 — heart cover with return of premium and option 4 — critical illness cover with return of premium).

The policy also assures waiver of premium for five years if you are diagnosed with any of the stated conditions under the policy. The plan continues without you having to pay premiums for five years.

Future Generali’s policy also has an inbuilt death benefit cover. It is higher of 10 times of the annualised premium or 105 per cent of total premiums paid or 25 per cent of the sum assured (SA)or guaranteed maturity SA, if any. Guaranteed maturity sum assured is the sum of all premiums paid less any critical illness benefits paid. The death benefit will be available from day one, without any waiting period.

The policy provides sum assured of ₹5 lakh-50 lakh. Maximum age at entry is 65 years and the cover is provided till 75 years. The policy pays 25 per cent of SA on diagnosis of a minor ailment; 50 per cent in case of a moderate condition and 100 per cent if it’s a major condition. The minimum policy tenure is 10 years.

Our take

This is the only CI plan that covers 59 illnesses. The listed illnesses include loss of speech, deafness, blindness and Alzheimer’s disease (without any age limitation), which do not get cover under regular health plans and even some CI plans.

Also, this policy has a larger SA, opening it to people looking for higher risk cover. However, what you need to note is that there is a survival clause — the policy covers the individual only if he/she has survived 21 days after the diagnosis of the illness. This condition doesn’t apply for cancer, but it is applicable for heart ailments. Survival period in CI plans in the market, including Apollo Munich Optima Vital, Bharti Axa Triple Health, Bajaj Allianz Critical Illness, is 30 days. Religare Health’s Assure, also a CI plan, has no survival clause, but the plan covers only 20 critical illnesses.

The Future Generali’s plan is expensive compared to other plans, given its comprehensive coverage. The premium on ₹10 lakh plan for a 40-year term (the maximum the policy offers) for a 35-year-old male is ₹8,136. The annual premium for Edelweiss Tokio Life Criti Care+ that provides cover for 17 illnesses is ₹4,832 (for a 30 year term). The premium for Apollo Munich’s Optima Vital that gives cover for 37 critical illnesses and comes with life-long renewability is ₹4,425 (for 1 year term).

The premium for the Future Generali’s ‘return of premium’ options is very expensive (₹13,525 for the same individual). Given that the objective is to cover a risk, look at it as a price for a worry-free life, and go for the basic option in the plan.

The negative side to Future Generali’s plan is that it excludes pre-existing diseases (any condition for which the policyholder had symptoms in the 48 months before signing up for the policy). Apollo Munich’s Optimal Vital and Edelweiss Tokio Life Criti Care+ cover pre-existing diseases after 48 months of commencement of the policy.

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