To file a claim with Critical Ill or Life Insurance companies, the recipients often need to mail in receipts of medical proofs and the claim form itself. The policies are valid in most instances, providing that after your prognosis you received report that you have ?14 to 28 days? to survive. Once the company is accepted and evidence is clear that you are in fact the policyholder, that your were born on the said date, and that you have received medical treatment from an expert in the field of your condition, and once, all verifications are made, you will receive a large lump ?tax-free? sum of cash.

Can I work still, or do I need to stop work after filing a claim? When illness attack the patient may need to stop work, or else the patient can work minimal hours. Once the patient receives, the lump sum provided by the policy the money belongs to you and if you continue to work, it will not affect your claim. Statistics claim that ?35? percent of men and nearly 50% of the women are increasing contacting cancers, and only live for around ?5 years.? While the statistics reveal further, that ?1 in 6 women? will experience Chronic Ill and that ?1 of 5 men? will undergo Chronic Ill before the giving up work. Therefore, Critical Illness Coverage is important, in that if these statistics are accurate, then debtors are in the making if coverage is not available. This will increase the already existing problem and even if you can work after filing a claim, there is no guarantee how long that work will last.

It makes sense to combine Life Insurance Coverage with Critical Illness Policy. The combined coverage will make a way out when a person becomes ill. While, Critical Illness Coverage will often cover major illnesses, Life Insurance may offer a way out when the ill is not lingering. Since, new medical developments are underway creating solutions for cancer treatment, AIDS, and other terminal illnesses; we can never tell which plan could most benefit us in the event we fall ill. In other words, if you have terminal illness and treatments become available, who knows if Critical Illness plans will work in the same manner. Since, we can never tell we must also learn more about Life Insurance policies, and what the policies will cover.

Life Insurance

Life Insurance Coverage offers a way out in some instances when a patient is temporarily out of work. The plans may offer large ?tax-free? cash sums to tie the family over until the patient if well. If the patient is critical ill then the coverage will provide additional burial funds coupled with the funds received from Critical Illness Coverage to help the family out. There are several types of plans available; therefore, it makes sense to shop around looking for policies that you feel may be needed later.

Things to consider when searching for Life Insurance and Critical Ill policies should include health. To consider your health your must consider hereditary conditions, pending conditions, and possible conditions. Does my family history have histories of heart attacks, strokes, mental diseases, or other types of diseases that could affect my health later? If so, what medical treatments will I need and how much will the treatments cost if I should befall the illness? How is my health now? Do I consider myself a risk of poor health in the future? What if my condition causes me to loose my source of income? Is it possible I could get into a car accident that will put me out of work permanently? These are a few questions to consider when applying for Insurance. You may also want to consider the coverage needed and the price you can afford for the policy? Do not forget to consider the premiums, since the premiums will determine cost.

Finally, health is important, since we need good health to function properly in our daily lives. Furthermore, at any given time anyone of us could meet the nasty illnesses that plague lives everyday. Therefore, if you have coverage now, later when you file a claim, the money will be there when you are in need.

Authored by Michael Bens. For more great information about all forms of insurance visit our free online insurance publication the Gabae Insurance Source to find the information you’re looking for!

Also you can check out Gabae Insurance Articles to find the articles’ you’re looking for!

What Is Critical Illness Cover ?

Way back when, in 1694 to be precise, the first notion of insuring a persons health was put forward by by Hugh the Elder Chamberlen. Health Insurance developed through the centuries, but essentially it was insuring a persons health against a disablilty. That is, covering the costs of medical treatment for a person severly injured. As we have moved on into the modern world along with the development of many other insurances we now have critical illness cover, a form of insurance that is designed to pay a lump sum when the policy holder is diagnosed with a specific illness.

The list of illness you can obtain cover for is varied, and of course if you develop an illness that you are not covered for then your insurance won’t pay out. Some of the conditions you can get cover for are the following.

Alzheimer’s disease
Bacterial Meningitis
Blindness
Cancer
Coma
Coronary artery bypass surgery
Deafness
Heart attack
Kidney failure
Loss of limbs
Major organ failure requiring transplant
Multiple Sclerosis
Occupational HIV
Paralysis
Parkinson’s disease
Severe burns
Stroke

There are many more condition that can be covered, upon negotiation with your insurance company.

Why might I want Critical Illness Cover?

It is a fact of life that people get seriously ill. And if you do what are the consequences?

If you have a partner and/or a family what does the loss of your income mean?

Do you still have outstanding payments to be made on your mortgage?

Do you run your own business?

Does the illness you have developed require specialist treatment, perhaps not covered by other health plans you might have?

At the end of the day your Critical Illness Cover is there to provide a lump sum to help you through the potential financial difficulties arising from a serious illness.

Where can I get Cover?

With all types of insurance there are a multitude of providers. Some of the larger insurance companies that deal with all types of cover will undoubtedly be able to give you a quote for cover. But also do not rule out some more of the more specialist insurance providers. The main thing is to check out the full details of your policy, if your family has a history of a particular illness you must make sure your policy covers this, but also do bear in mind that you have to fully disclose your family health history and your insurance premium will reflect this.

Mike Bromley

Mike Bromley runs a site about Critical Illness Cover UK. Pop in for a visit – you are most welcome!

Recent press coverage has again lambasted the insurance industry over critical illness insurance. The underlying problem is that a critical illness claim is not as straightforward as, for example, a claim under car or life insurance. With car insurance it’s patently clear whether or not you’ve had an accident – the damage is there to be seen and repaired. And with life insurance it’s going to be hard for the insurer to argue that you’re not dead!

By their very nature, critical illness claims are far more complicated. The insurers will need to satisfy itself that the claim is valid in three primary areas before it pays out: -

Is the medical diagnosis correct?

Is the diagnosed illness included in the schedule of insured critical illnesses listed within the policy documents?

Did the policyholder fully disclose their state of health and medical history on their original application form?

It’s clearly in the policyholder’s interest to check that the medical diagnosis is correct – so there’s rarely ever any conflict between the policyholder and the insurance company on that issue. It’s the other two areas which require validation where conflicts sometimes arise.

With constant research and development in the medical field there can sometimes be some illnesses where validation falls into a grey area ? it can be argued that an illness is insured and it can be argued that it isn’t. Insurance companies are aware of these problems and they frequently revise the wording on policies in an attempt to clarify the extent of the cover and eliminate scope for dispute. Nevertheless, disputes are relatively common and sparks fly when the policyholder thinks he is insured but the insurer disagrees. This is illustrated by a case that comes before the Courts shortly. Mr Hawkins from Staffordshire is suing Scottish Provident under the terms of his ?400,000 critical illness policy. Basically, his medical advisers believe his illness is insured whereas Scottish Providents’ medical advisers disagree. If Mr Hawkins wins his case, the press will have a field day and the critical illness insurers will suffer further bad press it can ill afford.

Another summons, filed recently in the High Court, highlights the problem when an insurance company believes that the claimant mislead them on his or her original application form. Our understanding is that if an applicant misleads or leaves out relevant information, this amounts to obtaining insurance cover on false pretences. The High Court summons relates to Thomas Welch from north London who is suing Scottish Provident for ?206,800 which includes interest. The problem goes back to 2000 when, a few years after starting his critical illness policy, it was confirmed that Mr Welch had testicular cancer. The insurer refused the claim because of ?non-disclosure saying that Mr Welch had not been honest about his smoking habit. He admits that he did smoke earlier in his life but is insistent that he had long since stopped when he applied for the insurance. As such, Mr Welch claims that he did honestly complete the application. We suppose that the case will centre upon whether Mr Welch accurately answered the questions about smoking. Most insurance companies define ?a smoker? as a person who has smoked or otherwise taken nicotine products within the previous 5 years. If Mr Welch had smoked during those years, he would have had to answer ?yes? to that sort of question and his insurance premium would have been as much as 65% more than he would have been charged as a non-smoker. We speculate that his lawyers may argue that either he did not smoke during the period in question or he omitted the smoking information by simple oversight and that his past smoking was not relevant to his testicular cancer. Interesting issues. We shall follow the case and let you know the outcome.

Mr Hawkins case illustrates the problems that can arise if insurance documents imprecisely define an illness or when the technical diagnosis of an illness leaves scope for medical experts to disagree. Both issues are entirely outside the policyholders control at a most difficult time for them and their families and we can well appreciate their anguish. The long-term answer must lie in improving the medical definitions within the policy. The probability is that this will lead to increasing the technical medical jargon which the man in the street would find difficult to understand – but that must be preferable compared to what Mr Hawkins is going through.

The other court case must stand as a clear reminder to all that insurance applications must always be 100% accurate and completed in good faith. We recognise that this may still leave room for dispute (and Mr Welch’s case may be a case in point), but if an applicant fails to accurately complete the forms, they are taking the significant risk that any subsequent claim will be rejected.

Rightly or wrongly, the press have a track record of giving the insurance industry a hard time, casting them as heartless big business. This reinforces the public’s impression that insurance companies are not to be trusted and especially it seems, with regard to critical illness insurance. This view is bolstered by the fact that around 20-25% of critical illness claims are rejected (the rejection rate does vary between insurers). This issue is something that insurance companies must get to grips with ? it is bad for their clients and bad for the development of their business.

This is a crying shame. 1 in 6 women and 1 in 5 men will be diagnosed with a critical illness before their normal retirement age* and as such, critical illness insurance can greatly protect the finances of those unfortunate enough to be diagnosed.

(* Source: Munich Re.)

About The Author
Michael Challiner writes for Express Life Insurance ( http://www.express-life-insurance.co.uk ) who offer life insurance quotes and critical illness insurance. Click here for more life insurance topics ( http://www.express-life-insurance.co.uk/life-insurance-news-articles.htm )