Big City Living: Why Torontonians Really Need Critical Illness Insurance

For some people, the lure of the big city with its hustle and bustle is undeniable and unavoidable. Access to the countless amenities and excitement makes it easy to forget the downsides - and with all of the great things that come with living in Toronto, there are a few major downsides, one of the most important being the stress of fast paced work environments, traffic and the “go, go, go” way of life.

For many Torontonians, stress is a common factor that contributes to overall health. For many individuals living in the ‘Big Smoke,’ stress at work, stress over finances, or stress at home is a given. For many, handling stress is just a normal everyday occurrence – but what about those unforeseen mental and physical consequences that accompany stress?

Well, a recent Toronto Star article says that it is a big deal. New research found that too much stress in your life can increase the risk of heart problems by up to 27%. The article revealed “chronic tension is as dangerous as smoking about two packs of cigarettes a week or having a 50-point spike in your LDL (lousy) cholesterol level.” Clearly most of us who live in the city just take stress as a part of life and don’t even realize the health implications – until they start to experience symptoms.

Knowing that managing your stress probably isn’t going to involve a move out of the big city, learning how to manage stress and also protect yourself in the future should be a key consideration. A critical illness insurance plan is something that you really should consider especially if you are the breadwinner in your household.

And stress isn’t the only reason to consider critical illness insurance. The numbers speak for themselves. Almost 65% of Canadians with kids at home don’t have critical illness insurance, but almost 50% of Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime and 1.6 million Canadians who currently have heart disease have suffered a stroke in the past. With all of the advances in health care, survival rates after suffering a critical illness are high in many cases. Term life insurance for example will only financially protect loved ones in the event of death but what if the more likely scenario is surviving and recovering from a critical health event?

So what is critical illness insurance? Critical illness insurance is a type of insurance coverage that covers illnesses such as heart attack, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, blindness and stroke, and critical illness coverage can help support you financially with a lump sum payment. You can use it to pay your mortgage, keep a personal business going, or for medical treatment or child care.

Critical illness insurance can be purchased as a term or permanent or level premium policy and many whole policies provide a 100% rebate of your premiums after a pre-determined number of years if you don’t suffer a critical illness which is a real “win-win” because you can essentially bet on having good health. Level premiums, the cost to protect yourself and your family is very minimal as it’s just the after tax return of what you could have made with the same premium, which is very little in this low rate environment.

If you live in Toronto and have yet to consider the importance of critical illness insurance it is probably a good time to start. Planning ahead for yourself and your family is an essential step in ensuring financial protection no matter what happens in the future.

For more information about critical illness insurance, and why Torontonians really do need it, please contact Independent Financial Concepts Group by calling 416-849-1653 or visit www.wecoveryou.ca.