National Critical Illness Policy: Premium, Eligibility And Other Key Details

National Insurance Company, a Government of India enterprise, offers various health insurance products. Among these, it offers a special insurance policy covering critical illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, kidney failure etc. Called National Critical Illness Policy, this product of National Insurance Company covers expenses in the event an insured person is diagnosed with critical illnesses, according to the insurer's website -nationalinsuranceindia.nic.co.in. National Insurance Company offers two variants of the National Critical Illness Policy: Plan A and Plan B.

Here are five things to know about National Critical Illness Policy:

1. Any person between the age of 18 and 65 years can buy National Critical Illness Policy. Children between the age of five years and 18 years can be covered provided their parents are covered concurrently, according to the National Insurance Company website.
2. The policy can also be availed for self and family members including spouse, parents and children.
3. The sum insured for an individual starts from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and in multiples of Rs 5 lakh up to a maximum Rs 75 lakh.
4. The sum insured can be a maximum of five times of the annual income for the insured person; for a working spouse, a sum equal to five times of annual income is allowed as the sum insured, and for a non-working spouse, a sum insured would be between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh not exceeding 50 per cent of the sum insured of the proposer.
5. The sum insured in full will be paid on the first diagnosis of a covered critical illnesses if a person survives for the survival period applicable to the critical illness, according to the National Insurance Company website. Survival period refers to the number of days a person survives after being diagnosed with a critical illness and varies for depending on which illness the insured person has acquired.

Source: National Critical Insurance Policy prospectus

Apart from critical illness policy, National Insurance Company also offers National Mediclaim Policy to cover against hospitalisation expenses incurred for treatment of illness/disease or injury contracted/sustained by the insured person during the policy period.