Critical Illness Cover Costs & Pay-outs

The cost of critical illness cover depends mainly on your personal circumstances, the level of critical illness cover you want, and who you get your critical illness cover with.

Personal circumstances

Your lifestyle includes assessing your age, sex, medical history, occupation and lifestyle.

• Critical illness cover policies taken out by younger people generally work out cheaper than those taken out later since premiums are significantly lower.
• Sex is also a factor – statistics suggest that a quarter of women suffer from a critical illness before they reach retirement age while for men it’s just one out of every five.
• Family medical history – many critical illnesses are hereditary and so an applicant’s family medical history must be taken into consideration.
• Occupation – some occupations come with higher health risks than others and so insurers need to be able to assess what risks if any you may be exposed to.
• Certain lifestyle choices benefit our health while others hinder it. Insurers consider our lifestyles as part of calculating an insurance premium. Smokers for example will often be quoted higher premiums than non-smokers because of the associated health risks.

The level of critical illness cover you want.

The level of critical illness cover you choose affects the cost. Often our clients like to specify certain illnesses/injuries that they want included on their policy. Different people want policies of varying lengths. Some of our clients even like to combine critical illness insurance cover with life insurance. The choice is yours, you can specify the duration of the cover you want and the level of that cover, whether it be life-long of just for the duration of your mortgage. A member of our team will listen to your individual requirements and try find you the critical illness cover you want.

Who you get your critical illness cover with

The market is saturated with insurance companies, and it can be very frustrating trying to find a quote that is not only excellent value but also gives you the cover you need. This is why we are here to help! We understand insurance and we listen to our client’s needs. Once we have a clear understanding of the level of cover you want and your personal circumstances, we can then present you with a shortlist of quotes and policies that best suit your needs and budget. You will not be obliged to choose any policy we present to you and if you do choose one, there will be no extra cost for our help. By calling us you have nothing to lose and probably a lot to gain. Call us now on: 0800 008 6768 for free quotes and expert advice.

Critical illness cover pay-outs

Once an individual covered by the insurance has been diagnosed with a critical illness, insurers often require that they survive for a period (usually 14-28 days) before they can submit their claim. Once the claim is submitted the insurer will check that the diagnosed illness is defined on the claimant’s policy. The insurer may also review the claimant’s medical records to see if the customer fully disclosed their medical history at the time of application. Only when the customer’s medical history has been fully disclosed and the diagnosed illness/injury is listed on the policy, is the insurer able to accept the claim and make a pay-out.

A pay-out will consist of a lump sum which will be defined on the policy. Once the pay-out has been made to the policy holder, the policy ends. If the claimant’s condition improves or worsens after the pay-out, it has no bearing whatsoever on the pay-out.

In 2010 UK insurance companies accepted over 90% of all critical illness insurance claims, with less than just 2.5% being turned down for non-disclosure of medical history.