Medical Insurance Or Critical Illness Insurance. What’s The Difference And Do You Need It?

While most Malaysians are aware of medical insurance, many are still unsure of critical illness insurance and what it all means. 

Is it the same as medical insurance? Why do I need it? Who does it benefit? What ARE the benefits?

With so many insurance plans available, it can be difficult and confusing to navigate through all the information and find out what's best for you and your family.

Medical Insurance
Medical insurance covers the cost of treatment and medication if you get hospitalised. Depending on your coverage, this could include expenses such as ICU charges, pathology charges, and day care treatments.

Critical Illness Insurance
Critical illness insurance covers a predefined list of illnesses, and offers a lump sum payout made to you, upon diagnosis. The illnesses covered usually include cancer, heart attack, and stroke, among many others.

Medical Insurance
Medical insurance pays specifically for the cost of your medical treatment or hospitalisation. For example, if you need to undergo a surgical procedure, you can make a claim to your insurer. From there, the insurer will settle the hospital bill or reimburse you if you paid first.

Critical Illness Insurance
With critical illness insurance, the lump sum payout can be used for anything you want. So while your health insurance covers all your medical expenses, the CI protection helps to cover non-medical related costs.

This could include a loss of income, living expenses, lifestyle adjustments, and even alternative or experimental treatment that you're interested in. Basically, you can use the payout for anything your medical card doesn't cover, that way you can have peace of mind and focus on your recovery.

Medical Insurance
Technically, you don't "receive" money from medical insurance, it goes to the hospital to cover your medical costs and treatment.

Critical Illness Insurance
Critical illness insurance provides a lump sum payout directly to you upon diagnosis. 

While some CI insurance policies cease once the benefit has been paid, others allow multiple claims. This is something you should look out for when considering which policy to go for.

The main things to look out for are:
- Coverage for all stages of critical illness, from early detection to late detection
- A plan that allows multiple claims rather than ending once a benefit is paid out
- Ability to re-diagnose the most prevalent critical illnesses, which are cancer, heart attacks, and strokes

They may sound similar, but they are not interchangeable. It's recommended to get both as they cover different aspects of protection.

With any illness, there's a significant financial impact on you, and if you are the breadwinner of the family, this affects your spouse and children too. Unfortunately, there's a domino effect on loved ones as you may need to make adjustments to your lifestyle.

With CI coverage, you're able to continue providing for the people you care about, while also using the payout on any indirect expenses for your medical treatments.

While it's not something that we like to think about, critical illness is something that does and can happen to anyone. In the unfortunate event that you experience a critical illness, your only focus should be on recovery.

That's why a lump sum payout can be so useful. You get the treatment you deserve while still being able to care for others.

Watch how critical illness coverage can help provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones:

Here's what it offers:
- Comprehensive critical illness coverage that allows multiple claims up to 400% of rider sum assured
- Additional Special Benefit coverage on diabetic-related conditions and joint-related conditions
- Coverage for re-diagnosis of three major critical illnesses: cancer, heart attack, and stroke
- Early to late stage critical illness coverage that ensures you stay protected throughout