Should you buy insurance for cancer?

To cover yourself from the risk of cancer, there are three kinds of policies, i.e. health insurance, critical illness policy and cancer policy. If we look at their premiums then there is not a lot of difference in the premium of a critical illness policy and cancer policy. But still, a critical illness policy is expensive than a standalone cancer policy. Though the health insurance plan can be on the expensive side.
 
The advantage of critical illness is that they cover multiple illnesses, unlike disease-specific cancer policy. If you plan to take a dedicated illness policy for major diseases then it becomes inconvenient to manage the risk through them.
 
If we look at the facts then according to the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, around 8 lakh people in India died due to cancer in the year 2018. Heart diseases are also catching up with an increasing number of cases. And not just these, but also a lot of other critical illnesses are affecting the working population as well as retirees. So, it is always preferable to take a comprehensive critical illness policy rather than a disease-specific cancer policy. However, if you already have adequate critical illness cover and feel the need to have an additional disease-specific cover due to family health history, then you may opt to have a disease-specific policy as additional protection for a specific disease.