Serious illness can strike at any age and therefore some people opt to take out a form of insurance which is designed to ease financial strain through a tax-free lump sum payout, particularly by those who have close relatives who rely on them for financial input, often referred to as ‘dependants’ in policy language.  This is often called critical illness insurance or critical illness cover.

This cover pays out the agreed sum when the policyholder is diagnosed with a specified range of illness.  There will typically be quite a long list of illnesses covered on the policy, but the wording of a company’s deal may differ from one firm to the next.

Nearly all critical illness insurance policies cover a set of core conditions, often things like cancer, a heart attack, kidney failure, and a stroke.  Most will also pay out if somebody becomes permanently incapacitated because of an injury or illness.

However, not all conditions are covered and a potential policyholder may want to carefully examine the wording of a deal before they sign on the dotted line.

Generally speaking you can get illness cover either for a set amount of time, perhaps as long as a mortgage is due to last, or for the rest of your life.  Somebody can take out a policy with an agreed term and perhaps renew when runs out if they choose.

There is also often a waiting period after you make a successful claim, perhaps around a month, before a payout arrives and after a policy is purchased somebody will need to wait a set amount of time, perhaps three months, before they are allowed to make a claim.

Getting critical illness cover insurance often involves completing a form provided by the insurance company.  This will often enquire as to your medical history and the background of close family relatives in terms of medical conditions.  You may have to pay a higher premium if some of your relatives have suffered certain major illnesses.

Smokers can also often expect to pay more, and sometimes you may need to complete a medical.  There are also some common exceptions on this kind of cover, and insurers will not typically pay out if someone falls ill due to drug or alcohol abuse, self inflicted injury or HIV/Aids.

Following a successful claim the agreed benefit is simply paid as a one-off lump sum and you can often expect it to arrive fairly quickly after the serious illness has been diagnosed.  Critical illness protection is also different to permanent health insurance which involves a regular income payout if somebody is diagnosed with a long-term illness or injury.

Importantly critical illness insurance typically allows you to use the payout exactly as you wish.  You may want to use it to pay off a mortgage or to clear debts, and it can also be used for things like childcare or even the household shopping and bills.  The idea is to help a family come to terms with the policy holder’s condition and support them financially at a difficult time.

When you are young fit and healthy, it is awkward to plan for the day when that might not be, but critical illness insurance is something that we all should make provision for.  This is a case of providing the essentials of living in today’s world for your loved ones in the event of your early death.

After many years of medical studies it is plain the chances of a individual contracting a critical illness during their life is quite high therefore insurance providers now handle insurance policies like this every day.

Studies have highlighted the problem with virtually one man in five by the time they retire having a serious medical illness.  For women, this figure is slightly lower with only one in six being affected by before retirement.

Of course, most individuals do not really feel they need critical illness insurance and would explain why they are so unwilling to start a plan.  This type of insurance policy is designed to protect those around you who you love but the primary reason why individuals organise critical illness cover is to ensure mortgage repayments do not lapse.

Nowadays increasing numbers of people decide to use the World Wide Web to arrange their insurance plans and more recently cover for critical illness has also become available.  For obvious reasons there will be certain things that need physical evidence and so these plans are not invariably smooth sailing to organize.

Understandably, insurance suppliers want to see physical proof that the applier does not have any outstanding conditions before they arrange the coverage.  This is also for the benefit of the claimant because if they need to contact their critical illness insurance provider, they do not want to receive an insensitive person on the other end of the phone line.

One group of high risk individuals are those that smoke, in fact they generally ask each applicant if they have smoked within the previous year and if the answer is ‘yes’, they will be rated higher.

Many things are taken into account when dealing with the risk component associated with any type of insurance policy including the applier’s age, their overall health, whether the type of work they do is dangerous or any activities they participate in, not just whether they are a smoker.

The cover that critical illness cover insurance provides is quite extensive, and so you can anticipate it to pay out if you have a deadly illness, if you are laid off from work owing to the condition or if surgery is required.  Family responsibilities are never easy but ensuring your family is looked after if you are diagnosed with a deadly illness does not have to price the earth.

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