【Happy Baby】Protect your child’s health — A guide to choosing child critical illness insurance

“I’d rather be ill than have my child be ill!” Seeing their young children fall ill, many parents would say this. However, can illness ever be chosen? According to information from the Children’s Cancer Foundation, around 180 children in Hong Kong are diagnosed with cancer each year, with leukaemia and brain cancer being the most common¹. Although serious critical illnesses in children are not especially common, if a child is unfortunately diagnosed, the treatment process can be very lengthy and involve substantial medical expenses. Parents who care deeply for their children often take out critical illness insurance for them as a precaution. There are also many insurance products on the market specifically designed for children’s critical illnesses, but the differences in cover can be considerable, so buying one without due care may easily leave you at a disadvantage.

Generally, critical illness insurance products cover the “three major critical illnesses”, namely heart disease, stroke and cancer, as well as other common serious illnesses. To cater to market demand and develop the family customer segment, some insurers have added children’s serious illnesses to the coverage of critical illness products. However, although they all provide cover for children’s illnesses, the illnesses covered are not the same.

Table 1: Proportion of coverage for children’s illnesses under critical illness plans in the market

Note: Data sourced from 10Life internal statistics, covering approximately 50 whole-life critical illness plans in the market; updated on 28 August 2024

Our review of around 50 whole-life critical illness plans in the market found that coverage for children’s serious illnesses varies from product to product. For example, only 76% of products cover severe autism. As for rare critical illnesses such as osteogenesis imperfecta and juvenile Huntington’s disease, only 62% and about half of the products respectively provide cover.

According to a study by a medical team at the University of Hong Kong, one in every 67 people in Hong Kong has a rare disease, accounting for 1.5% of the population. Although the incidence of rare diseases is not high, parents should not underestimate the risk, as rare diseases have a particularly significant impact on children. More than 50% of rare diseases manifest during childhood², potentially causing developmental delay in affected children, or even physical impairment and intellectual disability, which can have a profound effect on a child’s growth. Among the many children’s critical illness insurance products in the market, 10Life has established the Happy Kids certification to help parents quickly select suitable products. All certified children’s critical illness insurance products cover the children’s illnesses listed in Table 1.

【Browse Happy Kids 2024 to learn more about protecting your child】

In addition to covering the types of illness, parents may also wish to pay attention to other benefits of critical illness products, such as premium waiver protection. If a parent/guardian unfortunately passes away, some insurers will waive future premiums, allowing the child to continue enjoying cover.

Caring for a child with a long-term illness is a long battle that can disrupt the entire family’s life at any time. In addition to a lump-sum payout easing the family’s pressure, some critical illness products offer care support or additional benefits, such as family extension cover and special educational needs caring cover. Taking FWD’s Critical Illness Support as an example, the plan provides family care services³, which can help with referrals so that the insured person’s family can receive appropriate care, including home cleaning, Chinese soup delivery, childcare and pet care services, helping to reduce the pressure of caring. In addition, taking the CTF Life “Guarding Family Plus 198” Critical Illness Protection Plan as an example, the plan offers special educational needs cover. If the insured person is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or Tourette syndrome at or after the age of 6; or enrols in a special school due to developmental disorder, physical disability, visual impairment, hearing impairment, psychiatric illness or intellectual disability, an additional compensation⁴ may be paid.

Children are like seedlings and need careful nurturing to grow healthily. The same applies when choosing insurance products for your children: you must not be careless in order to provide them with comprehensive protection. Moreover, children’s health is directly linked to childcare expenses. If you would like better budgeting on the parenting journey, you can visit the 10Life Happy Kids page to learn more about certified products.

Notes:

1. Children’s Cancer Foundation 
2. Heep Hong Society publication
3. Family care services are currently provided by Osler, and renewal is not guaranteed. All relevant charges and fees (if any) must be borne by the insured person. FWD shall not be liable for any act or omission of Osler and/or any of its affiliates. Relevant details may also be adjusted from time to time without prior notice from FWD. Please refer to the policy document for details.

4. In respect of the insured person before (i) the policy anniversary on which the insured person attains the age of 18; or (ii) the payment of any Critical Illness Survivor Benefit of Severity Level 3, whichever is earlier, if the insured person is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or Tourette syndrome at or after the age of 6; and/or enrols in a special school due to developmental disorder, physical disability, visual impairment, hearing impairment, psychiatric illness or intellectual disability and studies there for at least one school year (the “Covered Special Educational Needs Condition”), an additional 10% of the sum insured or USD12,500, whichever is lower, may be paid, up to one payment per policy. Please refer to the policy terms and conditions for details of the Special Educational Needs Caring Benefit.

Last updated on: 24 October 2024

This English version of this article has been generated by machine translation powered by AI. It is provided solely for reference purposes. In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency between this translation and the original Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.