Critical Illness Insurance And The Rather Hot Issues We Ignore
Summary
During the last few years, Critical Illness Cover has not benefited from a good press. Consequently, its significance is vastly under-estimated. This article stresses just how very necessary critical illness insurance cover in reality is.
Figures now show that one in four of us will be ill with some kind of cancer through out our lives. And it is skin cancer that has predominantly played a part in this escalating problem .
Even though many people do survive cancer, its brutality unavoidably has an enormus impact on the patients life and employment. Yet would you believe it, only 11 per cent of the working public has insured themselves for a life threatening illness even with the existence of insurance to explicitly help in such circumstances.
Critical Illness cover is becoming extremely vital. A study from Lloyds reinsurance, who are expert re-insurers, has made known that the number of critical illness claims has increased by twenty four per cent during the last 18 months.
Most financial specialists will say that the best life insurance is a necessity if you possess a mortgage or dependants. But a life insurance policy pays out only if the insurance policyholder were to die So what occurs if your seriously ill and cannot work?
Developments in medical knowledge show that people are now quite likely to survive conditions such as strokes, cancer and heart disease than 25 years ago. But recovering is not really the same as being fit enough to resume your career. Lots of people recover from the condition, but have to take less strenuous jobs or completely give up work. As a result their income dives. Consequently, financial advisers content that critical illness cover should be much higher up on people’s list of protection insurance priorities. They consider it as extremely important rather than being optional.
As one expert put it, “Unlike life insurance cover, critical illness insurance pays out not if you die but if you develop an sickness. With Critical Illness Cover there is a large quantity of claims because we all live longer now.”
With Critical Illness cover, immediately the policyholder is diagnosed with a severe illness, the policy pays out the complete insurance cover as a tax-free lump sum. Providing the insured sum is enough, this lump sum can supply the funds to pay off any debts and the mortgage. It may perhaps be invested to provide the family with an ongoing income. Even if you’re not required to retire because of severe sickness, you will be at least sufficiently financially protected to work part-time or take extended time off. There will not be any restrictions as to how you use the money so you may prefer to put the money towards your medical costs. Should you have to claim, critical illness cover provides a lump sum that gives you the flexibility to take whatever steps you need to take.
The specific conditions covered by critical illness policies does change between insurers and it’s vital to find the right policy. Do not just go for the cheapest. For instance, many insurance policies cover you for the onset of Alzheimer’s but with insurance company, this cover stops once the policyholder becomes sixty. With others cover stops at the age of sixty five. Some insurers will cover you against being contaminated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) if you are attacked or assulted and others will cover you if the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is passed through a blood transfusion. To some, these may sound like “mere details”, but with critical illness insurance cover, it’s the details that are so vital.
Like so many different types of life insurance, the younger you are when you start a critical illness policy the cheaper it will be. For example, a non-smoker aged 30 taking out a twenty five year policy, the monthly premium would be 19 pounds 50 pence. This jumps to £36.40 if the same person delayed taking out the policy until they were 40 If you wait until you are 40, this increases to 38 pounds and 20 pence.
It is a fact that these days an increasing number of single twenty – thirty year olds do not have stable partners who would support them should they become severely ill. Young women, particularly, should consider taking out critical illness insurance as figures show that they are more liable to make a claim than males. The report from Swiss Re found that nearly 50 per cent of all claims from ladies were from under 41 year olds compared with just forty per cent with males. But it is a fact that less than thirty two per cent of all critical illness policies started by 19 to 35 year olds are bought by ladies.
The claims also disclose a man woman divide. Ladies account for 55% of all multiple sclerosis claims and 66 per cent of multiple sclerosis claims. However, 90 per cent of heart attack claims are made by gentlemen.