THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISIBILITY AND CRITICAL ILLNESS INSURANCE?

There are numerous forms of insurance available to cover one of your most valuable assets: yourself.

There’s life insurance, health insurance, long-term care insurance, and some celebrities even insure specific body parts against potential accidents. While you may not require $30 million in dental insurance like Julia Roberts or $70 million leg insurance like David Beckham, there are all sorts of insurance meant to assist you, if you are unable to work, due to illness or injury. Disability Insurance (DI) and Critical Illness Insurance (CI) are two of them. While these two types of insurance have some similarities, in that they can assist you and your family through often difficult personal events, they differ significantly, in that, they address different financial protection needs.

Disability Insurance Explained

Current statistics demonstrate that potentially over one-fourth of today’s 20-year-olds, will become incapacitated, in some significant way, prior to retiring. And in fact, accidents are rarely a cause of death. Truth be told, the bulk of long-term absences are caused by back injuries, cancer, heart disease, and other disorders. Therefore, Disability Insurance is not just necessary, it’s paramount to own it because it can help you maintain your desired lifestyle, by replacing some of your lost income if you are unable to work due to an injury or sickness. This is usually between 60 and 70% of your annual wage. The money you allotted to you by Disability Insurance is intended to cover expenses that would typically be covered by your income. This could include things like your bills, mortgage or rent, groceries, childcare, and other home costs. Disability insurance reimburses you for a portion of your salary if you should become disabled.

Critical Illness Insurance Explained

If you are diagnosed with one of the major illnesses covered by your policy, such as cancer, heart attack, or stroke, you will get a one-time, lump-sum payment that you can put toward whatever you wish. The expenses of recovery are not the same for everyone. A serious sickness might occasionally leave you with the expense of recovery in addition to the possibilities of taking a leave of absence from work. This could entail the requirement for expensive assistive devices or even travel expenses—both of which disability insurance might not cover.

It’s even fathomable, that a critical sickness could even bankrupt you, due to lost wages because your inability to work. In addition, to medicine and treatment expenditures, they all add up! 42% of working Canadians would be unable to survive for six months on their present funds if they fell critically ill. That’s why Critical illness Insurance is vital to own because you never know when you’re going to need it. And it can provide the necessary funds to sustain your needs, should you become critically ill and unable to provide for yourself.

In fact, it can pay for little expenses like parking at the hospital or potentially you could upgrade your accommodations at the hospital to a private hospital room. You could definitely cover those very expensive prescription costs that usually go “hand-in-hand” with a critical illness. Or even possibly pay for a necessary life-saving surgery, which would normally take months or even years to book. With Critical Illness Insurance, your coverage is paid out, if you survive the majority of the listed serious illnesses, after more than 30 days.

Have questions about Disability or Critical Illness Insurance, please contact Mike or Amanda from Platinum Mutual Ltd., at (416) 315 8569 and they can walk you through the benefits of DI and CI.