What is it?
Critical illness (also known as serious illness and specified illness) is a once off lump sum payment that is paid out if you contract one of a list of illnesses that are covered by the insurer.
What does it cover?
It was designed to cover the Big 7:
1. Heart Attack
2. Cancer
3. Stroke
4. Heart surgery or bypass surgery
5. Kidney failure
6. Organ transplant
7. Multiple Sclerosis
Now your typical critical illness plan now usually covers approximately 45 different illnesses. Some of the illnesses covered are very rare and the providers have never paid out on them, so you have to question why they are covered in the first place.
What do critical illness plans mainly pay out for?
The biggest payout of cover by some distance is Cancer (55%) of claims in 2013, followed by Heart issues (16%), Stroke (8%) and Neurological issues (4%).
Why take out a critical illness plan?
We find critical illness plans are a great way to meet debt obligations while you recuperate.
For example, take out cover equal to 3-5 years debt repayments and use the proceeds of the plan to cover your loans for that period. Used in conjunction with an income protection plan [insert link], our clients have financial peace of mind if they are sick and the know they can concentrate on making a full recovery.