Why should I want critical illness insurance cover?

Critical Illnesses occur more commonly than you may be aware. The average age of a policyholder claiming under for this type of plan is 47 (Source: Munich Reinsurance Co 2000).

The difference between life cover and critical illness cover is that with critical illness, the sum insured is paid out soon as the illness is diagnosed. With life insurance the sum insured is paid out on death. This means that with Critical Illness the money from the policy can be used to benefit you as well as your family.

You may believe that “it won’t happen to me” and we really hope that it doesn’t, but consider the following facts: -

• 35% of men and 46% of women who are diagnosed with cancer survive at least 5 years
• 78% of those who suffer a stroke survive more than a year.
• 1 in 5 men are diagnosed with a critical illness before their normal retirement age.
• 1 in 6 women are diagnosed with a critical illness before their normal retirement age.

In 1999:

• 40,989 women suffered with breast cancer in the UK, which is 136 for every 100,000
• 23,456 men were treated for lung cancer in the UK. This works out to be 83 cases per 100,000 men. 1,990 men had been diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1999. This means over 7 cases per 100,000 men.

In 2000:

• There were new diagnoses of 112,066 of cancer for women and 111,543 for men. At total of 223,609 new diagnoses of cancer in the UK. (Source: Cancer Research UK)

Is this a risk you are prepared to ignore? Yes, it may never happen to you, but wouldn’t knowing you had the money available give you peace of mind?

For almost all types of cancer, the chances of it returning after five years are much lower than they are after two years. So, as the years pass by, it is less likely that your cancer will return and this means that you can rebuild your life and have the resources to deal with those changes.

If financial freedom is important to you, to provide for a quality of life should the unexpected occur, then you should consider critical illness cover for your family.