What does critical illness cover?
Understanding what your critical illness policy covers you for could offer peace of mind, when you need it most.
Key points:
- Critical illness cover pays a lump sum if you're diagnosed with, or having surgery, for a covered condition during the policy term.
- Only the critical illnesses listed in the policy conditions are covered; no other illnesses are included.
- Most policies won't pay out if you pass away within 10 days of diagnosis.
- Critical illness cover is not a savings or investment product and it will only pay out on a successful claim. It will not pay out on death.
Being ill or injured isn’t something we tend to think about until it happens. Have you ever thought about the costs you'd need to cover if you became ill and were unable to work? That's when critical illness cover could benefit you, by helping you keep paying the bills. Find out more in this article about critical illness, to see if it's the right product for you.
Critical illness explained
Critical illness cover pays out a lump sum if you're diagnosed with, or undergo surgery for, a critical illness that meets the policy definition during the policy term. Most policies have a survival period that you need to meet before you can claim. This tends to be 10 or 14 days dependent on the product. Policies only cover the critical illnesses defined in the policy conditions and no others. Critical illness is designed to help support you and your family financially while you deal with your diagnosis - so you can focus on your recovery without worrying about how the bills will be paid.
Our Critical illness Plan pays out provided that the policyholder is a UK resident, is aged between 18 and 64, that their critical illness meets our policy definition and that they have survived at least 10 days post-diagnosis. We only cover the critical illnesses we define in our policy and no others. The full cover amount will only be paid out once. Also, if payments stop, the policy will end. Our critical illness video explains more about how this product works.
Conditions covered in our Critical Illness Plan
The conditions we cover are listed in alphabetical order. You can find more information in our policy conditions.
A - C
Aorta graft surgery
Aplastic Anaemia
Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) of the brain
Bacterial meningitis
Benign brain tumour
Benign spinal cord tumour
Bladder removal
Blindness
Cancer
Carcinoma in situ of the breast
Carcinoma in situ of the cervix
Carcinoma in situ of the testicle
Cardiac arrest
Cardiomyopathy
Cerebral aneurysm
Coma
Coronary artery bypass grafts
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Crohn's disease
D - O
Deafness
Dementia - including Alzheimer's disease
Devic’s disease
Encephalitis
Heart attack
Heart valve replacement or repair
Intensive care
Kidney failure
Liver failure
Loss of hand or foot
Low grade prostate cancer
Major organ transplant
Motor neurone disease
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple system atrophy
Non-malignant pituitary tumour
P - Z
Paralysis of a limb
Parkinson’s disease
Pneumonectomy
Primary pulmonary hypertension
Progressive supranuclear palsy
Pulmonary artery surgery
Removal of an eyeball
Rheumatoid arthritis
Severe lung disease
Spinal stroke
Stroke
Structural heart surgery
Systemic lupus erythematosus
Terminal illness
Third-degree burns
Traumatic brain injury
Ulcerative colitis
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