Critical Illness Articles
Should You Buy Critical Illness Cover Along With Life Insurance ?
Life insurance in the UK is more popular than critical illness cover. About 44% of UK residents are covered under a life insurance policy, while only 15% carry critical illness cover. While life insurance continues to win in popularity over critical illness cover, many insurance companies have started offering combination insurance that saves consumers even more money when they buy two policies together.
In December 2009, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority passed guidelines that will help insurers start launching life-plus-health insurance combinations. This will help stimulate partnerships between life insurers and non-life insurers to offer a broader range of insurance products that benefit consumers.
While these guidelines are meant to help combine health insurance and life insurance, many insurance companies, both health and life-focused, offer critical illness covers as well.
Why Would You Need Life and Critical Illness Cover ?
Life insurance is well-defined; it pays a lump-sum benefit to a beneficiary if the insured dies prematurely. Critical illness cover also pays a one-time lump-sum benefit, but directly to the insured should he or she become critically ill and unable to work. Both life and critical illness covers offer a way to protect loved ones from financial disaster should a primary breadwinner no longer be available to earn a living.
The Compelling Health Statistics
Although your chances of dying a premature death are small, you have a much greater chance of becoming totally disabled and unable to work before you retire. It is expected that 1 in 5 UK residents will be diagnosed with a critical illness sometime between the ages of 40 and 70. Those who do become critically ill or injured have a much greater chance of dying, especially from diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. 1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life. Of those, 1 in 4 will die.
Saving Money on Combined Protection
Clearly, you can see the value of purchasing a protection policy to help provide financial assistance in the case of critical illness. Buying a combination life and critical illness cover can save you money over purchasing two separate policies.
A combination policy will allow you to have the peace of mind knowing that you are eligible for the lump-sum benefit, even if you don’t die. Combination policies will generally cover all regular critical illness conditions. In addition, while stand-alone critical illness cover policies will only pay if the insured lives through a certain waiting period, usually 15 to 90 days, combination policies will pay, regardless if the claimant dies during the waiting period.
If you are uninsured for critical illness cover, consider looking into a combination life-critical illness policy. Or talk to your insurer about adding critical illness cover onto your current life or health insurance policy.
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