Critical illness cover

Thanks to improved health care, you are more likely to survive a serious medical condition than ever before. However, you would have to adjust your lifestyle to suit your new circumstances. Critical Illness Cover can enable you to receive a cash lump sum, on diagnosis at the outset of an illness, minimising financial hardship and stress within your family.

The statistics are clear: People are living longer.

And as they live longer, they're more likely to experience a heart attack, cancer, kidney failure, or other illness that can knock them down temporarily, but not necessarily out. Modern medicine knows how to keep people alive and functioning longer, so chances are you can even continue to work once you're stabilized.

What is critical illness insurance?

Although policies will vary from company to company, critical illness insurance typically pays a lump sum to someone who suffers a specified critical illness or injury and survives.

Do you need critical illness insurance?

That depends. Critical illness cover can fill a gap between PHI and life insurance. Life insurance pays out when you die; PHI pays out over time when you suffer a disabling illness or injury that prevents you from returning to work, and it can replace only a percentage of your lost wages. With critical illness insurance, on the other hand, you must survive but you don't have to be disabled to collect. You also don't have to be employed, as you do to collect PHI or disability insurance. And the payment, generally made to you in a lump sum 30 days after the onset of your illness, can be used however you please, either on bills, mortgage payments, or anything else. You will probably use the lump sum to pay for medical expenses not covered under your other insurance policies, such as seeing specialist doctors, to pay for home health care, or to make up your spouse's lost income if he or she takes time off work to care for you. Other possible uses: Changing your car or home to accommodate a wheelchair, starting an education fund for your children, or keeping your business afloat while you're out of commission. The payout is also nontaxable.

You don't have to worry about disability policies and critical illness policies offsetting each other. One doesn't exclude collecting on the other; you can get payments from both. Likewise, companies will generally pay out on a critical illness policy regardless of your Permanent Health Insurance.

Some of the illnesses and injuries typically covered:

• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Kidney failure
• Paralysis
• Loss of sight
• Loss of limb
• Loss of hearing
• Loss of speech
• Major organ transplant
• Alzheimer's disease
• Life-threatening cancers
• Angioplasty or heart bypass

A decent policy will normally cover at least 28 conditions.

For a personal quotation or discussion please complete the enquiries form.