What Happens to my Term Insurance if I am in a Coma?

Wondering, does term insurance cover critical illness? Term insurance plans pay the sum assured to the nominee of the insured in case of sudden demise of the policyholder. However, have you ever thought about what happens to a term plan in case the insured goes in a coma?  Let’s find out!

Most term insurance plans offer coverage against critical illnesses. In many cases, they are added as riders along with your term insurance plan. Generally, insurance providers keep a tab on the number of critical illnesses that they cover, which differ depending on the policy and its terms and conditions. Commonly, diseases such as cancer, brain surgery, Alzheimer’s, aplastic anaemia, heart diseases and coma etc. are covered under the critical illness riders of term insurance plans.

So, let’s find out what happens to a term life insurance plan if the insured goes in a coma. Does term insurance cover coma?

What happens to the term policy if the policyholder goes in a coma?

A patient may go in a coma if the brain functioning of the person is not working properly. Coma is a condition in which the patient may go under mental unconsciousness for an extended period.  In this case, the patient fails to respond to any outside stimuli. Coma may be the result of many cases such as oxygen deprivation, severe head injury, dangerous increase in glucose levels, etc.

Normally, term plans are such that they do not pay any maturity benefit to the insured if the insured survives a policy or outlives the policy duration. However, in case the policyholder goes in a coma, the term plan remains active. But the condition is the payment of the premiums in the past had been done on a timely basis. Hence, by procuring a critical insurance rider together with your basic term plan, you can lower the financial burden of undergoing critical illness treatment.

Features of critical illness rider under term insurance plans for coma cases

A term insurance with critical illness cover comes with several benefits to a term policyholder. Here are some benefits mentioned below:

• Lump sum life cover amount is paid to insured
• The premium amount to be paid through the tenure of the plan remains the same
• In most cases of term plans with critical illness rider, the policy remains applicable in India as well as outside the borders of the country
• Section 80D of the Income Tax Act allow policyholder of term plans with critical illness rider to be eligible for tax benefits
• The plan allows good coverage so that proper care can be taken for daily costs and medical expenses.

How is the critical illness benefit gained in case of coma?

In case of term plans with a critical illness rider, most of the policies allow the insured to have a choice in terms of receiving the payment of death or rider benefit. In case the insured is diagnosed with a critical illness, he/she can receive the entire benefit amount which is paid as critical illness cover in one go or as regular pay. The choice of receiving payout under term insurance with health cover can be determined at the time of buying the policy.

Moreover, there are some plans that waive the premiums of the policy that are due in case the insured goes into coma or becomes disabled permanently. This is because in such cases the insured becomes unable to earn a regular income and it becomes difficult for them or their family to make the payment of the premiums too.

Further, in other circumstances of critical illness rider benefit, the insured can avail three different options to receive the coverage:

• You can have the payout as a single lump sum amount
• Or you can choose to have the payout as a regular source of income
• Or you may opt for a plan of dividing the total coverage amount in two parts and receive a portion as lump sum amount and the remaining as regular income.

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