Mutual of Omaha Critical Illness Insurance vs Cancer Insurance: Which to Buy

If cancer is the event, both policies treat it alike. Each pays 100% of the benefit for internal cancer or malignant melanoma. A $50,000 Critical Illness policy and a $50,000 Cancer policy would both pay $50,000 on a covered cancer diagnosis.

The same fine print applies under Mutual of Omaha’s cancer definitions. Precancerous conditions such as leukoplakia, hyperplasia, polycythemia and benign moles do not qualify. Cancer first diagnosed within 30 days of the coverage start date is not paid in most states. Mutual of Omaha notes different handling in a few states, including Pennsylvania.

The Critical Illness policy adds eight conditions that a Cancer policy does not pay for. For many people under 65, heart attack and stroke are the reason to choose it.

You can get part of that back on a Cancer policy by adding Mutual of Omaha’s heart attack and stroke rider. That still leaves out Alzheimer’s disease, organ transplant, blindness, paralysis, deafness and kidney failure.

If your employer offers critical illness through United of Omaha Life Insurance Company, the cancer side often looks different from the individual policies. Group plans tend to split cancer into tiers.

So a group plan may pay something for early-stage cancer or skin cancer, which the individual policies do not describe. It may also pay again if cancer comes back. The tradeoff is that group coverage depends on your job, though both summaries we read offer portability. Learn how work-based coverage functions on our group hospital indemnity insurance page.

Hypothetical example, for illustration only. Two neighbors each buy $25,000 from Mutual of Omaha. One, age 50, picks the Critical Illness policy. The other, age 68, can only choose from the Cancer or Heart Attack/Stroke policies and picks Cancer.

Actual payment depends on the policy definitions in your state.

Neither policy pays a daily amount for a hospital stay. Cancer treatment and heart events often include inpatient days, which is where hospital indemnity helps. Our critical illness vs hospital indemnity guide explains the overlap, and the Mutual of Omaha hospital indemnity page covers that product. For general background, read critical illness insurance.