Critical Illness Claims - Canadian CI Insurance

Critical Illness Claims can be expensive. Although it was introduced to Canada about 14 years ago to provide the cash needed, relatively few Canadians have purchased critical illness (CI) insurance.
Many Canadians could benefit from owning CI insurance.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Network, a survivors' group, commissioned a 2009 national survey of 446 Canadians with a recent breast cancer diagnosis. The survey found that most respondents experienced a major financial setback.
On average, 44 per cent of respondents depleted their RRSP savings. Critical Illness Claims comity reports Twenty-seven per cent had to borrow to pay for treatment costs since medicare does not cover all cancer drugs, supplies and prosthetics.

Treatment time for breast cancer averaged 38 weeks. However, Employment Insurance is only payable for up to 15 weeks at 55 per cent of salary. That does not cover half of the treatment time. The resulting financial burdens make many breast cancer survivors feel even more hopeless. Many women had to retire from their jobs.

Breast cancer is one type of critical illness that many people can survive due to improvements in medical science. People who have had heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure often live many more years.

LUMP SUM SPENDING
If you are diagnosed with a critical illness, what could you do if you suddenly received $75,000, for example? Would you see a top medical specialist in another province or in the United States? Would you take your family for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation? Would you renovate your home to make it wheelchair accessible?
One way to make a lump sum cash payout possible is to buy a CI insurance policy.


PAYING CI PREMIUMS

Critical Illness Claims allow you may have to choose between making RRSP contributions and paying CI insurance premiums. Could you make RRSP contributions and accumulate enough money in your RRSP to eliminate the need for a CI insurance policy? With a big enough RRSP you could self-insure.
Instead of paying CI premiums, consider first upgrading or topping up your disability insurance coverage. Maybe you could obtain a better DI policy with a shorter waiting period and a longer benefit period.