What is the Dread Disease Rider: How It Works and Its Benefits

Health emergencies strike unexpectedly. Getting diagnosed with a severe illness often leads to financial strain from costly medical treatments and loss of income. Health insurance plans can offer financial support; however, you can extend this coverage through the Dread Disease Rider (DDR).

In this blog, we’ll explain everything you need to understand what a Dread Disease Rider is, how it works, and its benefits for policyholders.

What is a Dread Disease?

A dread disease or a critical illness is a life-threatening medical condition that poses a significant threat to life and requires long-term treatment. Here are examples of dread diseases:

• Cancer
• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Kidney failure
• Liver cirrhosis
• Alzheimer's disease
• Parkinson's disease
• Major organ transplants
• Paralysis

Dread diseases can lead to significant financial burdens for patients and their loved ones due to medical costs. They often require expensive medical procedures, prolonged hospitalization, and lifestyle adjustments that may prevent individuals from working.

What is Dread Disease Rider?

InLife allows policyholders to add riders to their insurance plans, and a dread disease rider is one of them. What are insurance riders? These are optional add-ons to an insurance policy to expand its benefits.

So, a Dread Disease Rider (DDR) is an add-on to a life or health insurance policy. It supplements the coverage and benefits you can get from your standard policy.

This type of rider provides a lump-sum cash benefit if the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical illness. It serves as a safety net to help manage medical expenses, ongoing treatments, and lost income due to the condition.

InLife offers a Dread Disease Rider for health insurance plans like Resilience and life insurance plans like Wealth Assure Plus. With this rider, the insured receives a lump sum amount upon diagnosis of a covered dread disease. The added coverage helps ease the policyholder’s worry about finances and allows them to focus on their treatment and recovery.

How Does a Dread Disease Rider Work?

A Dread Disease Rider is an additional layer of protection on top of your life or health insurance plan. Here’s how a Dread Disease Rider works:

The DDR must be purchased along with a life or health insurance plan. It does come with additional costs, so adding a rider will increase your insurance premium.

The Dread Disease Rider kicks in only after the diagnosis of a covered critical illness. The insured must submit medical documentation to claim their benefits.

Once the claim is approved, the insured will receive the cash benefit. You’re free to use this for medical treatments, household expenses, or any other needs during your recovery period.

It’s also important to remember that the Dread Disease Rider only covers medical conditions considered critical or dread diseases. So, check your policy’s coverage before filing a claim.

What are the Benefits of Dread Disease Rider?

Should you add a DDR to your life or health insurance? Let’s look into some of the key Dread Disease Rider benefits:

Financial Protection Against Medical Costs 

Critical illnesses often require costly treatments such as chemotherapy, surgeries, dialysis, and long-term medications. Any financial assistance will be helpful and a DDR can extend the support you get from a basic health or life insurance.

With a lump-sum payout, policyholders can use the funds to cover these expenses without exhausting their savings or going into debt. This benefit ensures that quality medical care remains accessible despite high healthcare costs.

Income Replacement During Illness

A serious illness can prevent an individual from working, leading to a sudden loss of income.

The lump sum benefit from a Dread Disease Rider can serve as an income replacement. Policyholders and their families can use this to manage daily living expenses such as rent, utilities, groceries, and education costs.

This financial cushion from the DDR allows the insured to focus on recovery rather than worrying about meeting their financial obligations or going into debt.

Flexibility in Fund Usage

Unlike HMOs and other plans that directly pay hospitals or clinics, a Dread Disease Rider hands the lump sum cash benefit to the policyholder. This amount is meant to be used as needed—whether it’s for medical treatments, hiring caregivers, making home modifications for accessibility, seeking alternative therapies, or even covering daily needs like groceries and bills.

The rider offers financial support and the flexibility to allocate the funds based on the customer's specific needs and circumstances.

Cost-Effective Coverage Option

One of the benefits of a Dread Disease Rider is that it allows policyholders to include extra coverage in a standard insurance policy. Riders remove the need to purchase multiple separate insurance policies for specific needs, making them an economical option.

Adding a rider to your insurance policy allows the insured to enhance their coverage for a lower premium cost. So, while it does increase your overall premium for one insurance plan, it is still more affordable than taking on an entirely new policy.

Peace of Mind

A critical illness diagnosis comes with emotional and mental stress for both the patient and their loved ones. Adding financial stress to this can make the ordeal genuinely overwhelming.

A health or life insurance plan with a DDR can help ease the stress. Knowing that financial support is available when you need it can provide peace of mind not only after a diagnosis but throughout your daily life.

With this rider, families can concentrate on providing care and emotional support without the added burden of medical bills and income loss.

Things to Consider Before Getting Dread Disease Rider

While a dread disease rider offers valuable benefits, evaluating key factors before adding them to your policy is essential. Here are some considerations explained in more detail:

Limited Covered Illness

One of the main drawbacks of this rider is that it covers only a specific list of diseases, particularly those considered critical illnesses. Some policies also exclude pre-existing conditions.

Reviewing the policy details is vital so you know which diseases qualify for coverage and which do not. Understanding these terms will help prevent misunderstandings during the claims process.

Additional Costs

Adding a rider to your insurance plan results in a higher premium. Although rider premiums are generally affordable, it's best to assess if the overall cost fits your budget to ensure that you can pay your insurance in full.

Claim Process and Documentation

InLife aims to provide a seamless claims process for every policyholder. However, claiming benefits from your Dread Disease Rider requires proof of your diagnosis. So, be prepared to submit medical records, written evidence of diagnosis, and other paperwork.

Understanding the claims filing process helps ensure a smooth claims experience and avoid delays in receiving your benefits.

Get Additional Protection with InLife

Given the Dread Disease Rider’s benefits, it’s easy to see that it’s a valuable addition to life and health insurance policies, especially in the Philippines, where hospitalization and treatments for critical illness can be financially draining.

The lump sum benefit you get from a rider can supplement the benefits you receive from your insurance plan, making it easier to manage medical expenses and maintain financial stability.

Speak with one of our financial advisors to learn more about how InLife, the leading life insurance company in the Philippines, can help you protect your health and finances from life’s uncertainties.