Critical Illness Cover from Top Branch Life
Critical Illness Cover is not as straight forward as most people are led to believe. There appears to be a general assumption that a quote for a critical illness cover policy will be the same regardless of which company it is taken with and the cheapest option will be the best one. A lot of people also make the mistake of thinking that critical illness cover is the same as terminal illness cover. With critical illness cover the level of cover varies with each company and ranges anywhere between covering 26-37 different illnesses. The level of cover provided is often reflected in the price. To give you an idea of what is covered on a critical illness policy we will list the 22 conditions that the majority of companies all cover:
Alzheimers disease, Aorta graft surgery, Benign brain tumour, Blindness, Cancer, Coma, Coronary heart bypass, Deafness, Heart attack, Heart valve replacement, HIV infection, Kidney failure, Loss of speech, Loss of hands or feet, Major organ transplant, Motor neurone disease, Multiple sclerosis, Paralysis of limbs, Parkinsons disease, Stroke, Terminal illness, and third degree burns.
Aside from the above mentioned conditions the insurance companies also cover some of the following 19 conditions:
Angioplasty, Aplastic anaemia, Bacterial meningitis, Bone marrow failure, Cardiomyopathy, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, Insulin dependant disease, Encephalitis, Liver failure, Loss of independence, Mastectomy, Open heart surgery, Pre-senile dementia, Primary pulmonary hypertension, Prog. supranuclear palsy, Rheumatoid arthritis, Severe lung disease, Systemic lupus erythematosus, and Traumatic head injury.
With one company covering 15 of these additional conditions and another covering just 4 it is definitely worth speaking to a consultant to ensure you are picking a policy with the level of cover that you need. When making that decision a lot of people look back at their family history to identify hereditary diseases that they could be susceptible to.
Critical illness insurance policies can be taken on their own though most are attached to term life assurance policies. The critical illness aspect of a policy will work in the same way as the life assurance. This is to say that if you take out a combined level term assurance policy with critical illness cover you would receive a payout equal to the original sum that you insured yourself for should you claim on either aspect of the policy. In turn, should you take out a decreasing term assurance policy with combined critical illness cover you would receive a proportional payout determined by the point within the term of your policy that you make your claim.
To briefly summarise, a critical illness policy will payout should you be diagnosed with any one of the conditions listed on your policy. If you have taken a combined term assurance policy and critical illness cover it is worth pointing out that if you claim on the critical illness cover the life assurance will no longer be valid. A lot of customers tend to take a second life assurance policy should this circustance arrise. As you can see critical illness cover is not as straight forward as a simple term assurance policy. By taking the time to speak to one of our professional consultants about Critical Illness Cover, we are confident that we can assist you with your purchase giving you the peace of mind that you have selected a policy that is right for you. Please note that this is a free service and you are under no obligation to proceed with a policy.
