Critical Illness Cover
Not so well known in continental Europe but common in the UK, this type of insurance is similar to term life insurance but the difference is that it covers the events that might not kill you but could cripple you or leave you unable to work at all. The policy usually covers a specific range of illnesses such as heart attack, MS, blindness etc. The most common claim for this type of insurance is for people who contract cancer.
The insurance is designed to provide you with a capital sum in the event of diagnosis of a critical illness. This would then give you some breathing space financially at a time when money is the last thing you want to worry about. In many cases the money would be used to repay a mortgage, for instance.
The complete list of illnesses covered by one company is as follows:
- Alzheimers/Pre-senile dementia
- Angioplasty
- Aorta graft surgery
- Meningitis
- Brain tumour
- Blindness
- Cancer
- Coma
- Coronary artery by-pass
- Deafness
- Heart attack
- Heart valve replacement
- HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion
- Kidney failure
- Loss of limbs
- Loss of speech
- Major organ transplant
- Motor neurone disease
- MS
- Open heart surgery
- Paralysis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Stroke
- Third degree burns