Difference between critical illness and mediclaim cover?

It is very important to understand the difference between critical illness and a mediclaim policy. A mediclaim policy pays you for the hospitalisation expenses. However, imagine if your kidneys fail, a mediclaim policy will pay for the hospitalisation expenses that you incur for treatment or for say the transplantation of the kidney.

However, when your kidneys fail it is likely that you may lose your job or even at best your salary will go down. Therefore you need a lump sum with which you can replace the income that you will invariably lose when you are unfortunate to be stricken by illnesses such as kidney failure or paralytic stroke. A critical illness policy gives you a lump sum, a big enough lump sum that will allow you to replace a part of this lost income. Hence, a critical illness policy is as essential if not more important than a mediclaim policy.