Can Your Finances Withstand A Serious Illness?

Have you ever thought about what would happen if something unfortunate happened to you? For example, you got into an accident that affects your motor skills or contracted a serious illness that needs rehabilitation treatment. 

You might be thinking that you have nothing to worry about, because you have a medical plan. But what if you need a long time to recover and recuperate from your injury or your illness? 

Serious illnesses can wreak havoc on your finances

Contracting a serious illness or getting into a serious accident is already a very harrowing experience to go through, but even recovering or recuperating from the repercussions caused by these incidents can be very hard, both emotionally and financially.

Most of us are aware about how expensive medical treatments for serious illness can be, which is why a basic medical plan is necessary to protect our finances against the high cost of treatment.

But did you know that just a medical card may not be enough to cover all the costs you need for your treatments?

That’s because there are lots of hidden costs you will face when recovering or recuperating from a serious illness. This is where critical illness insurance can come to your rescue to provide the financial support not covered by a medical plan. 

Let’s take having cancer for an example. A recent study which followed breast cancer patients over a two-year period revealed a long list of unmet financial needs, even for patients with access to government healthcare facilities and employment medical insurance.

Besides direct expenses to treat the illness including surgery and medicines, other types of costs faced by the patients include:

• transport and parking costs for daily outpatient treatment sessions
• reduced income when other family members need to stop working to care for the cancer patient 
• job loss or taking long periods of unpaid leave when the patient is unable to work after employment medical leave is used up
• paying for additional childcare or house help when the patient is too ill to look after the household
• paying upfront for supportive medical equipment which may end up not being claimable under basic medical plans
• out‐of‐pocket payments for traditional and complementary medicine, including for mental health

Many other serious illnesses may also need a long period of rehabilitation even after hospitalisation, involving medication, physiotherapy or require professional care programmes. For example, stroke patients often need professional caregiving until they regain their mobility. This can cost around RM25 per hour to over RM5000 per month.

A critical illness plan can provide a lump sum payment to help cover these additional costs.

But not all critical illness plans are created equal 

Now that you know the true financial toll of a serious illness, you might be asking, what do you need to cover yourself from such situations?

The answer is simple, you need insurance coverage that can provide a lump sum payment to you to protect your finances from facing financial ruin if something happens to you.

However, while all critical illness plans do provide a lump sum payout for a predefined list of conditions (usually 36 types of illnesses), many fall short when it comes to looking after your overall health.

For instance, besides the limitation to 36 illnesses, many plans in the market today do not cover the early stages of an illness, provide post-surgery support, or address mental health conditions. 

The is where PRUAll Care by Prudential goes beyond regular critical illness coverage. What makes this plan stand out from all the other critical illness plans in the market today?

Comprehensive coverage for 190 conditions*	Provides for your total health needs*
107 illnesses in early and intermediate stage	Post-surgery recovery
64 illnesses in late stage	Intensive care with life support
6 conditions with special benefits	Compassionate benefit upon death
6 conditions under juvenile critical illness	Premium waiver riders for total and permanent disability of policy holder or death
7 mental health conditions

^{*Terms and conditions apply}

With PRUAll Care, you are provided with lump sum payments for an extensive list of serious illness conditions as an income replacement, so that you and your family won’t have to deal with a loss of income during your sickness.

A one-of-the-kind insurance plan

PRUAll Care goes beyond standard critical illness coverage by offering lump sum payments for the most relevant serious illnesses today and provides income replacement beyond a predefined list of critical conditions. 

For example, if you need major surgery to remove a benign tumor near an important organ, this plan will provide a payout if you need intensive care in hospital, post-surgery costs and even treatment for mental conditions that can arise on the long journey in treating a serious illness.

Here’s how PRUAll Care covers your total health needs before, during and beyond a serious illness.

^{Source: https://www.prudential.com.my/en/.galleries/PDF/PRUAll-Care-Brochure-EN.pdf}

As we all know, bad things can happen to anyone, anywhere. While we cannot avoid a serious illness affecting our life, we can take steps now to be prepared.

Stop the domino effect of serious illness with PRUAll Care

Remember, it’s not just for the medical costs of treating a serious illness but also the financial burden from indirect healthcare costs that you should be covered for, to prevent your finances from taking a huge blow and causing a negative chain reaction in your life.

As a Prudential customer you will also get preventive healthcare resources with the Pulse by Prudential App. This health app will help you remain in good health with features such as Health Assessment, Symptom Checker and free telemedicine to provide healthcare at your fingertips.