Critical Illness Insurance Cover is a unique benefit in so much as it can be added to any life contract as an additional and very valuable benefit or can be taken out as a completely separate and free standing plan in its own right.

As a benefit in whatever form you purchase it, it is the same. In short it makes a payment of the sum assured in the event of diagnosis of a critical illness.

Critical illness under the contract differ from policy to policy but the main critical illnesses that are covered are Heart Attack, Stroke, Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis. For a more comprehensive list please see the table at the bottom of this page.

Due to the fact that this cover can be added to most life insurance cont6racts the actual benefit that would be payable would be based on the cover being applied such as lump sum or income.

The main benefit of critical illness insurance is the fact that it pays out on diagnosis of the condition and not death or whatever the out come of the illness may be. This is important nowadays as a lot of critical illnesses can result in a full recovery, critical illness benefit is not affected by this. This means that the life assured could have a heart attack and go into hospital for a few weeks get better and still benefit from a critical illness benefit claim from their life insurance company.

In addition to this already valuable benefit some companies also cover the children of the policy holder and they also extend their cover to include bacterial meningitis. As usual if this is of particular importance you should check the specific key features document or contact one of our advisors and they will be able to help with company selection.

The list of conditions that can be covered are below, but it should be noted that this list is not exhaustive or any indication as to what would definitely be covered under any one particular plan as such for confirmation of what is covered by your plan or a plan that you are intending to take out please check the plan specific key features document.

• Stroke
• Heart Attack
• Cancer
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Major Organ Transplants
• Deafness
• Blindness
• Loss of speech
• Coma
• Heart surgery
• Kidney Failure
• Loss of two or more limbs
• Parkinsons Disease again generally restricted prior to age 65
• Permanent Total disability before age 65.
• Alzheimers disease, however a lot of insurers will restrict the benefit on this condition to pre age 65
• Pre Senile dementia pre 65
• Third Degree burns

Once again if you need any further help on Critical illness insurance cover or further information then please click the contact us button or ring 0800 083 60 50 and someone