What illnesses are covered by critical illness insurance?
Being diagnosed with any long-term or critical illness can be upsetting and traumatic. This is true for the diagnosed person, but also their family members and loved ones.
It can sometimes be difficult to approach the subject of life insurance and when serious illness cover should be considered. However, planning ahead and looking at critical illness cover can really take some of the pressure off yourself and your dependants.
As part of your life insurance policy, it’s there to pay out a lump sum should you be diagnosed with an incapacitating or life-threatening illness (within the conditions of the policy).
It is important to note that when taking out critical illness cover, there are certain factors that may have an effect on your premiums, such as:
- Your age
- Your health (including family history)
- Whether you smoke (or have previously smoked)
- Your working conditions.
Read on for more information about the conditions that come under critical illness insurance, including more details about serious illnesses, a comprehensive critical illness list and when to take further cover within your life insurance policy.
What illnesses does critical illness insurance cover?
Most insurance providers will cover the following illnesses and treatments within their critical illness policy:
- Aorta graft surgery – for disease and trauma
- Aplastic anaemia – with permanent bone marrow failure
- Bacterial meningitis – resulting in permanent symptoms
- Benign brain tumour – resulting in permanent symptoms or specified treatment
- Blindness – permanent and irreversible
- Cancer – excluding less advanced cases
- Cardiac arrest – with insertion of a defibrillator
- Cardiomyopathy – of specified severity
- Coma – with associated permanent symptoms
- Coronary artery bypass graft
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
- Deafness – permanent and irreversible
- Dementia including Alzheimer’s disease – resulting in permanent symptoms
- Encephalitis – resulting in permanent symptoms
- Heart attack – of specified severity
- Heart surgery – with thoracotomy
- Heart-valve replacement or repair
- HIV caught from a blood transfusion, a physical assault or at work
- Interstitial lung disease
- Kidney failure – requiring permanent dialysis
- Liver failure – end stage
- Loss of hand or foot – permanent physical severance
- Loss of speech – total permanent and irreversible
- Major organ transplant – from another donor
- Motor neurone disease and specified diseases of the motor neurones – resulting in permanent symptoms
- Multiple sclerosis
- Paralysis of limb – total and irreversible
- Parkinson plus syndromes – resulting in permanent symptoms
- Parkinson’s disease – resulting in permanent symptoms
- Pneumonectomy – for disease or trauma
- Primary pulmonary arterial hypertension – resulting in permanent symptoms
- Pulmonary artery replacement – with surgery
- Removal of an eyeball as a result of injury or disease – permanent physical severance
- Respiratory failure – of specified severity
- Spinal stroke
- Stroke – resulting in specified symptoms
- Systemic lupus erythematosus – of specified severity
- Terminal illness – where death is expected within 12 months
- Third-degree burns – covering 20% of the body’s surface area or 20% of the face
- Traumatic brain injury – resulting in permanent symptoms
What cancers are covered by critical illness?
Whether you’re covered for cancer on your critical illness insurance generally depends on the type of cancer it is and how serious it is.
Generally, a cancer is covered if it’s considered malignant, including leukaemia, sarcoma and lymphoma. The tumour must have been positively diagnosed with histological confirmation and be characterised by the uncontrolled growth of malignant cells.
For serious illnesses, it’s often necessary to take out further critical illness insurance rather than rely on just life insurance providing coverage. Later or advanced stages of cancer will often result in a payout, but early stages of cancer are likely to only qualify for a smaller payout or fall outside of your critical insurance policy.
Heart attacks and critical illness
Generally, critical illness insurance will include a payout for a heart attack, though it is sometimes based on the severity of the attack.
Acute coronary syndromes and angina with myocardial infarction aren’t usually covered.
The policy may also cover a thoracotomy. This is surgery to the chest that involves having a heart valve repaired or replaced.
Strokes and critical illness
A stroke can be caused when the blood supply to the brain is cut off or interrupted. It usually occurs when an artery is blocked or a blood vessel has burst. Symptoms generally include slurred speech, loss of vision and paralysis on one side of the body.
Strokes produce hugely varied effects, ranging from minimal impacts to severe loss of mobility, speech and brain function. When receiving a payout for this kind of illness, the amount will relate to how serious the stroke was and how much or little it has impacted you.
Dementia and critical illness
Dementia and Alzheimer’s will have a continuing effect on a person’s life following diagnosis. Although there are treatments that can help to slow the process, the ability for a person to work or take care of themselves will often be greatly reduced.
To qualify for a full critical illness payout, the dementia must have been diagnosed by a neurologist, psychiatrist or geriatrician. Generally, there must be permanent loss of the ability to do all of the below:
- Remember
- Reason
- Perceive, understand or express ideas
The payout can be helpful to cover the cost of any ongoing care.
Who should buy critical illness insurance?
If you’re young and healthy, you might ask yourself ‘Is critical illness cover worth it?’. Even when you have no obvious medical issues, problems can still arise. Though your chances of getting cancer or dementia at a young age seems slim, other illnesses, such as kidney or liver failure, can occur unexpectedly.
Critical illness cover could give you the peace of mind you need, particularly if you don’t have enough money to take time off work should you need to. If your employer doesn’t offer substantial sickness benefits, you might struggle to continue paying the mortgage and household bills while you get better.
With a policy, you could receive a lump sum that you can spend on whatever you like, from your mortgage to clearing debt. If you need to alter your home in any way to accommodate medical issues, you can do this too.
Your critical illness policy
As with any insurance policy, it is important to advise of any changes to your circumstances as soon as you are able to. This can affect the payout when making a claim. For more information and things to know about critical illness cover, you can read our guide on the topic.
What now?
Find out more about Zurich life insurance and critical illness cover
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