Planning a treatment or health insurance for serious ailments is always a difficult task. But if there is a family history of any medical conditions like cancer, the risk is high and whether your basic insurance plan will cover it or not is also a concern. Cancer treatments can be extremely expensive and in such cases, cancer insurance policy will give peace of mind.

Cancer insurance plans are the types of health insurance plans providing financial assistance if the patient is diagnosed with cancer. Cancer insurance is the type of health insurance that is created to make sure that the risks related to cancer are covered as superlative as they might be. Cancer insurance mostly assists in decreasing the costs experienced by individuals for the treatment of cancer and making sure that the policyholders have financial support when they require it. Number of cancer patients is increasing across the globe. Change in genetics, environmental factors and lifestyles are the main reasons for the increase in the occurrence of cancer.

Increase in the cost of medical treatments is making cancer patients take a big hit based on financial responsibilities. It is anticipated that the price of treatment and medical diagnosis will be anywhere around USD 40000 for around 6-month of the period. So getting prepared with the appropriate insurance plan is now becoming a necessity.

Cancer treatments demand extreme level of emotional and financial help from family members to the patients and in many cases these necessities might not be fulfilled. This is what happened with Ashok Garg from India and his family. Ashok Garg was detected with mouth cancer within two months after the wedding of his daughter. The family was debt-ridden already and not prepared for the expensive cancer treatment. The medical policy did not cover the pre-hospitalization treatment involving chemotherapy sessions that cost in lakhs. Garg family was enforced to sell the house for covering the hefty costs.

The policy is restricted to the expenses of hospitalization where the disease-specific health insurance plan like cancer insurance plan covers beyond in-patient hospitalization. Whereas the average health insurance covering around INR 5 lakh does not help. The cost of cancer treatment is around INR 25 Lakhs in India in some cases. Even though, it might depend on the concerned hospital and type of cancer. Treatment of cancer may take a few months or many years. But the treatment might be very expensive if illness is detected late or not properly diagnosed in the primary stage.

There are several companies providing cancer insurance plans which is beneficial to the individual detected with cancer. Some of the best available are:

• Cigna- Cigna offers cancer policy that provides detailed coverage starting at more than USD 20 per month, with total benefit payments present in amounts extending from more than USD 5500 to USD 100000. Individual and family coverage options are present for ages 18-99, involving coverage for cancer reappearance. Two types of cancer policies are present: cancer care treatment policy and total payment policy. Advantages are involved for hospitalization and surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, rehabilitative therapy, family care & hospice care like pet and child care expenses.

• MetLife- MetLife cancer policies are accessible through the program advantage and offer the coverage in total payment for hospitalization, cancer treatments, cancer recurrence, initial diagnosis and annual screenings. Premium payments is mechanically removed from the payroll. There is no requirement of an examination for receiving coverage and the definite renewable.