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What exactly is Critical illness cover?
This is a contractual agreement between an insurance provider and policy holder.
The insurance provider agrees to pay the policy holder a lump sum of money should they die from or upon diagnosis of any of the Critical illnesses outlined in the insurance policy
Do I really require Critical illness cover?
Imagine being diagnosed with some forms of cancer, a brain tumor or even suffering a heart attack or stroke and not being able to work.
Could your household survive financially with all your bills and outgoing expenses such as your mortgage payments or rent, any personal loans or finance agreements?
With out your income it can place a lot of pressure upon your family and loved ones to provide the financial stability you had before the incident / diagnosis.
Having Critical illness cover will provide you and your family a payout that can be used to pay off your mortgage and debts and in turn helping to relieve the pressure on your family at this very difficult time.
You can then all concentrate on your road to recovery without your financial burdens weighing you down.
Should you require any specialist treatment or require specialist equipment to be fitted in the home such as a stairlift, wheel chair ramps etc then your critical illness cover can help pay for this.
There are 3 different types of Critical Illness Cover available which are:
Term Critical Illness Cover - This is where the level of cover remains the same throughout the whole lifetime of the policy.
Decreasing Critical Illness Cover - This is usually directly linked to a capital or repayment mortgage and as the value of your mortgage decreases due to it being paid off, so does the level of cover of your Critical illness policy which also results in you having to pay lower premiums.
Increasing Critical Illness Cover - The level of cover increases throughout the duration of the policy to help protect it from devaluing due to factors such as inflation etc.
What Critical illnesses will I be protected against?
That is dependent upon the policy of the insurance provider.
Please read your policy notes carefully before signing so that you know exactly which conditions you are covered for.
Currently their are a set of critical illness which all UK insurance providers are obliged to cover (many cover extra conditions but again this is dependent upon each company) which include:
Advanced cancers, heart attack, stroke, traumatic head injury, benign brain tumor, third degree burns, major organ transplant, Parkinsons, Multiple Scleroisis, loss of speech, blindness, aorta graft surgery, Alzheimers, coma, paralysis of limbs, loss of feet or hands, kidney failure, artery bypass grafts and heart valve replacement.
How much does critical illness cover cost?
The cost of Critical illness insurance premiums will differ between each policy holder.
There are many different factors an insurance provider will take into account when calculating the cost of your insurance policy such as your age, medical history, current state of health etc.
An insurance provider may even ask your GP for a medical report but this will incur no cost to your self and you can view the report prior to it being forwarded to the insurance provider.
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