Life Insurance Quotes Blog

Summary
The requirement for clarity and candour when writing critical illness policies. This article will  enlighten you.
There is nothing more harrowing in life than to be diagnosed with a critical or chronic condition. Matters are made a thousand times worse when your cheap life insurance company informs you that they won’t pay up on your critical illness policy or private health insurance for the Cancer or HIV you are suffering from .

You are asked to peruse sub-clause four of paragraph 326 of the small print, which tells you that you have been diagnosed with the  wrong sort of cancer. Only tumours below the knee are covered and only the first five days of your treatment will be paid for, then it is up to you to find the money.

This state of affairs may sound absurd, but in spite of brokers and insurers being regulated, this type of procedure continues to take place. It has been a slow process to tidy up the industry and to make certain that consumers get a proper deal.

Just recently Cancer Backup, a registered charity, highlighted this problem by arranging a large assortment of  shopping surveys, which hightlighted some disturbing facts about the private medical insurance companies. It established that of all the leading insurers only Standard Life Health Care offered cover for cancer patients right through the duration of their illness. Only immediate treatment is covered by most of the health insurance companies. Treatment or care over a longperiod, such as hormone replacement or chemotherapy is normally excluded.

even though brokers and insurers want to finance long term cover for policyholders with chronic illnesses, they won’t always point out to likely customers, at the time of signing up what they are covered for.

Although both Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Backup have been in talks with comparableorganisations within the market to lift the standard of sales practices and make the small print of policy documents much clearer, progress has been slow since the report was published two years ago.

Critical illness cover and private medical insurance  is normally taken out by clients who are quite hale and hearty. Getting cancer is the last thing to cross their mind. That is why it is so essential to spell out a policy’s exclusions before they sign up.

A testimony of best practice for companies writing and selling health policies has been updated recently by the Association of British Insurers, which is a welcome step in the proper direction.

The market body has now proposed that insurers and providers selling these kinds of insurance should prepare typical case studies, which explicates the conditions when an insurance policy will or won’t be paid. Sadly insurance providers have no obligation to stick to this code, which is voluntary.

While the  Association of British Insurers initiative is to be appreciated, the best way of amplifying an insurance policy is by getting the salesman to explain the small print.

Furthermore, industry terminology is in spite of everything still being utilized by insurers to baffle the client. For example it is not right to classify cancer as an acute or chronic illness, disputes Cancer Backup. On the other hand insurers are resolute that it should go in the acute group. customers only hear about this when their claim has been rejected.

Even though the ABI have their heart in the right place, the better life insurance companies can only be made to upgrade their principles by the regulator. Much more detailed training of tele marketing staff, who sell the majority of the policies, is also long overdue

More rigorous marketing procedures are required with terminology being removed. Ultimately it remains the responsibility of the insurers life insurance companies to make sure that their customers are fully aware of the terms of their insurance cover before they sign the document.

Tags: Critical Illness, Critical Illness Cover, ilness, policy