In the 2 minutes you will take to read this article, 3 people will die of cancer in India.
By the time the day is over, 900 people under the age of 30 would have succumbed to heart disease.
By the time the year is over, there will have been nearly 50,000 deaths caused by the non-availability of vital organs for major transplants.
Besides the emotional turmoil caused by these life changing critical illnesses, there is financial upheaval as well.
Herceptin, a medicine that treats breast cancer (the largest killer of Indian women in 2014), costs between Rs.75,000 and Rs.1 lakh per vial. A patient usually requires 16 vials.
A single valve replacement surgery for heart disease costs between Rs.1 lakh and Rs.3.5 lakh.
A transplant needed to treat kidney disease, the 12th leading cause of death in the world, costs Rs.4 lakh.
Critical illnesses are not a distant possibility, but a daunting reality. Treatment and care for these diseases is not easy to arrange, and therefore, it is essential that you properly insure yourself against them.
