Survival Period Meaning in Health Insurance : What is the Survival Period in Health Insurance?

Health Insurance Plan Survival Period – Know in Detail

The health insurance plans that are specially crafted for critical illness are available with a ‘survival period’. Do you know what a critical illness survival period is? Let’s get details about it in this blog.

There are a number of critical illnesses that people are suffering from. Over the years, there has been a steep rise in the prevalence of such diseases in the country. The treatment for most of these diseases is costly and they last for a long time. Due to this, more and more people are opting to get coverage against critical diseases.  However, there is a survival period clause that is attached to every critical illness health insurance plan. Do you know what this survival period means? Let’s find it out.

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What do you mean by Survival Period?

If a person is diagnosed with a critical illness, he/she is likely to survive a time duration after the diagnosis of the disease. This duration is known as the survival period.  Critical illness can be anything ranging from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, brain tumor etc. These are diseases that need a long period to heal and thus cost more.

So, as per the survival period clause of health insurance your insurer will not pay the compensation for the costs incurred for treatment of a critical illness unless the insured person survives this period. The normal duration of this period lasts from 2 weeks to a month depending on the insurer and the health plan.

This is because as per the critical illness health policies when an insured person is diagnosed with an illness, the policy provider or the insurer pays the insured a lump sum amount. This lump sum amount allows the insured to pay for the cost incurred as part of the critical illness treatment. However, these policies do not have the option of paying death benefit to the family of the insured. And thus, only if the insured survives the illness through the survival period, they pay the compensation. On the other hand, if the insured dies during the survival period, the insurer will not pay for the compensation.

Moreover, if the insurer started paying this amount to all the policyholders it will cause a huge burden on the insurer.   Thus, this survival clause is added by insurers to the critical illness plans.

Is Return on Premium provided if the insured doesn’t survive the Survival Period?

So, what does return on premium means? It is the refund of the total amount of money paid as premium by the insured before being diagnosed with the critical illness. Under critical illness plans, the insurers do not offer any return on premium if the patient doesn’t survive and dies within the survival period.

The option of return on premium is available under life insurance plans and not under health plans. This facility is not available for the nominee of the insured under a critical health insurance policy.

Should You Consider a Survival Period While Buying a Critical Illness Insurance Policy?

Of course, you should consider survival period insurance. You should try to seek a critical illness policy that is available with a short duration survival period. This way the chances of your nominee getting the benefit is more if you are ever diagnosed with a critical illness. For this, you need to compare different plans offered by different insurers, especially in terms of the Survival Period in Health Insurance clause to avail the best policy.

Is the Survival Period and Waiting Period the Same?

No there is a huge difference between survival period and waiting period in health insurance. Waiting period is the time that an insured has to wait before he/she could make a claim for his/her health insurance. On the other hand, as already discussed, survival period in critical illness is the time duration that an insured is expected to survive after being diagnosed with a critical illness.

In most cases, the survival period is short as compared to the waiting period.  The duration of survival period is from 14 days to 30 days, while it ranges from 15 days to 4 years in case of waiting period. For example, if you buy critical illness insurance, you might have to go through 3 months waiting period and a 1 month survival period.

Also, in case of regular best health insurance for individuals or family, the waiting period for pre-existing diseases may be 4 years, while it will be 2 years in case of maternity health insurance plans.

However, the clause of survival period is available only in case of critical illness insurance; while the clause of waiting period is there in all types of health policies, including policies for critical illness. Another difference is that the waiting period starts from the day of buying an insurance, while for the survival period it activates after the insured gets diagnosed with a critical illness.

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