Is Liberty’s Critical Illness Cover like, ”Health Insurance Cover?” Let’s just unpack it! We’ll jump into what this cover actually gives you, the cool stuff it does, how much it might cost, and what makes it stand out. I’ve written this to be really straightforward as if we’re just relaxing and conversing.
Critical Illness Cover vs. Health Insurance: What’s the Deal?
This is a really important thing to understand, so let’s get it straight from the start.
Health Insurance (or Medical Aid in SA): Think of health insurance (what we usually call medical aid here in South Africa) as the thing that pays your doctor and hospital bills. It’s what sorts out your visits to the doc, your time in hospital, your meds, operations, and all that healthcare stuff. It’s basically about making sure those medical costs are handled directly.
Example: Say you have a medical emergency. You go to the hospital, get an operation, and your medical aid pays the hospital and the doctors. Or you pay them first and then claim the money back. It’s all about the money for getting better.
Critical Illness Cover (like Liberty’s Living Lifestyle Plus): Now, Critical Illness Cover is a bit different. It’s not medical aid, nope! Instead, if you get diagnosed with a really serious illness or have a major health event that’s on their list, it pays you a big chunk of cash. This money comes straight to you, and you can use it for whatever you need! It’s there to help you deal with the money problems that hit your life, not just your medical bills.
Example: You get told you have cancer, which is a critical illness covered by your policy. Liberty sends you a big sum of money. You can then use that cash to cover any gaps your medical aid might leave, pay for someone to help look after you, make changes to your house to make recovery easier, keep up with your bond payments if you can’t work, or even just take a break to focus on getting well. It’s about keeping your life on track financially when illness strikes.
So, to answer the question: No, Liberty’s Critical Illness Cover isn’t health insurance. It’s a whole different kind of long-term insurance, set up to give you cash when you’re going through a really tough health battle.
What ”Liberty’s Living Lifestyle Plus” Actually Covers
Liberty’s Living Lifestyle Plus is designed to be a really thorough critical illness plan. It’s meant to cover you for a huge range of serious health conditions and traumatic events that could really mess with your life.
Here’s what it generally covers and some of its main features:
Lots of Conditions Covered: This policy covers “over 150 conditions related to critical illness and trauma.” That means they’ve got a long list of specific illnesses and events like heart attacks, strokes, cancers, organ failure, and serious injuries that would trigger a payout.
Example: If you’re diagnosed with a certain type of cancer that’s on their list, or you have a really bad stroke, you’d get a payout depending on how serious it is.
Catch-all Benefit Category: This is a smart feature! It protects you for illnesses or conditions that might not be specifically listed in their 30 regular categories. It’s there for those rarer or newly discovered health issues.
Example: Medical stuff is always changing. If you get diagnosed with a serious, life-changing condition that wasn’t exactly named when you got the policy, but it fits the “Catch-all” rules, you could still get a payout.
Medical Advancement Protection (MAP): This is super clever! Medical treatments and ways of diagnosing things are always changing. MAP makes sure your policy’s rules for claims stay up-to-date, even if medical science moves on. It means you don’t have to keep changing your policy just to keep up.
Example: Let’s say you get the policy today, and a certain heart problem needs a specific surgery for a full payout. Fast forward 10 years, and a new, less invasive, but just as good procedure becomes the norm. Thanks to MAP, your claim will still be looked at based on this new medical standard, even if it wasn’t around when you first got the cover. This is a huge deal because it “future-proofs” your cover.
Extended Option: You can choose to add this on to get cover for even more stuff, including some “early cancers and mild illnesses.” This lets you make your cover even broader.
Example: If you’re worried about less serious cancers or other mild conditions that could still affect your life, the Extended option could give you cover for those.
Top-Up Option: This option can boost the payout percentage on most conditions to the full 100%. So, you could get the whole amount of your chosen cover for more conditions, not just the really serious ones.
Example: For a certain critical illness, the regular policy might pay out 75% of your cover amount for a moderate case. With the Top-Up option, that same moderate case could get you a 100% payout.
Critical Illness Booster and Cancer Claim Booster: These options can give you a payout more than 100% of your chosen cover amount, giving you even more cash when you really need it.
Example: If you have R1 million in cover and use a booster, you might get R1.2 million for a valid claim, giving you extra cash beyond what you initially chose.
The Good Stuff About Having This Cover (Benefits)
Beyond what it covers, Living Lifestyle Plus gives you some really valuable perks:
Lump Sum Payment: This is the main thing. You get one big cash payment when you claim. This money is yours to use however you want – for medical bills your medical aid doesn’t cover, changes to your home, replacing lost income, or anything else.
Example: You get a R1 million lump sum. You might use R200,000 for a caregiver, R300,000 to pay off some debt, and keep the rest for everyday living while you recover.
No Required Survival Period: This is a big plus! Lots of critical illness policies make you wait a bit (like 30 days) after diagnosis before they pay out. Liberty’s Living Lifestyle Plus has “no required survival period,” meaning they can look at your claim as soon as you’re diagnosed with a listed condition.
Example: If you’re diagnosed with a critical illness today, and it’s a valid claim, Liberty can start sorting out the payout without you having to wait a month or more. That means quicker access to your money when you need it most.
Tax-Free Payout: The big cash sum you get from a critical illness claim is usually tax-free here in South Africa. So, you get the whole amount to use.
Example: If you’re paid R1.5 million, you get the full R1.5 million without any tax taken off.
Recurring Claims: This is a really strong feature. You can make “multiple claims”! That means if you get better from one critical illness and then get hit with a different, unrelated one later, you can claim again. Even for the same condition, if it gets more serious, you might be able to claim again (especially with the Top-Up benefit).
Example: You claim for a heart attack, get better, and years later get diagnosed with something new, like kidney failure. You could potentially claim again. Or, if you have a mild stroke and get a partial payout, and then later have a severe stroke, you might claim the rest of your benefit.
Stand-Alone Benefit: The money you get from Living Lifestyle Plus doesn’t mess with the amounts for any other benefits you might have with Liberty (like your life cover or disability cover).
Example: If you claim for a critical illness, it won’t make the amount your family gets from your life insurance smaller if something else happens later on.
Tailored and Adjustable: Your cover can go up every year to keep up with your needs and inflation. You can also choose how long you want to be covered for, either until “age 65 or Whole of Life.”
Example: As your salary grows or you have more family responsibilities, your cover can automatically increase each year to make sure it’s still enough.
The Money part: How Much Does it Cost?
Liberty’s Critical Illness Cover, like most long-term insurance products, doesn’t have a set price. The cost, or your premium, is very personal. It depends on a few things:
Your Age: Usually, the younger you are, the less you pay.
Your Health: How healthy you are right now, your past medical history, and any conditions you already have will affect the price.
Your Lifestyle: Things like whether you smoke or what job you do can play a part.
How Much Cover You Want: You pick the amount of cover you want, up to a maximum of R6 million (they might check your finances for big amounts). The more cover you want, the more it will cost.
The Options You Choose: Adding things like the Extended option, Top-Up option, or Boosters will make your premium go up.
Because it’s so personal, the best way to get a real price is to have a chat with a Liberty Financial Adviser or your Broker. They can look at your specific situation and give you a proper quote.
Summing It Up
Liberty’s Living Lifestyle Plus Critical Illness Cover is a really strong financial safety net. Just remember, it’s not medical aid. It gives you that crucial lump sum of cash straight to you when you get a serious illness, helping to protect your lifestyle during a tough time. Features like Medical Advancement Protection and the Catch-all benefit show that Liberty is really thinking ahead to keep your cover useful for you.
It’s a flexible plan that you can make fit your exact needs, giving you peace of mind that you’ll have options when you need them most. If you’re thinking about this kind of cover, definitely go have a chat with a Liberty Financial Adviser or your Broker. They can help you understand all the ins and outs and make sure you get the right cover for your unique situation. Stay well.
