Critical illness insurance first made its apparition in the UK during the late 1980’s. Since then, insurance companies found the underlying marketing potential of the product. Successful marketing unveiled significant results. In the year 1997, the ABI showed sales of around 579,000 critical illness policies in the UK. This amount was believed to have been not exact. The reason may have been because not all insurance companies had revealed their sales data. Otherwise, figures might have climbed to about 700,000 critical illness policy sales. As a matter of fact, a 68 percent growth may have been noted in contrast to the year 1995. Let’s have a look at some different aspects of critical illness cover.

Furthermore, benefits may not be awarded if critical illness claims had not been reviewed properly. This is called the assessment period. A neurological disorder of around 3 months must be confirmed for a critical illness such as stroke, as per the definitions. Thus, such a claim could be acceptable only after three months have passed. Otherwise, if a permanent neurological deficit occurs before three months, critical illness insurance might then make a payout if the survival period has been crossed. Each critical illness may have its own assessment period. This can be found in the definitions of the critical illnesses.

Moreover, critical illness insurance may be sold in two formats: accelerated and standalone. The standalone critical illness cover may also provide a direct cover. But the insured person may have to stay alive for about 30 days to receive the payment. This is called the survival period. The survival period may usually depend on the gravity of the critical illness. The minimum time to survive may be two weeks. On the other hand, many people may go for the accelerated critical illness cover, especially with mortgage. Upon diagnosis of a critical illness the insurance may award the lump sum without waiting. Mortgage related critical illness cover may have recorded a total of 60 percent take up in contrast to any other form of policies sold.

Moreover, a critical illness cover may also contain exclusions. Here are some common exclusions found on most critical illness covers.

- Attempt to suicide or self inflicted injury - Drug and alcohol addict - HIV/AIDS

Most policies may stipulate the fact that a payment may not be made if the critical illness claimed for might result from those mentioned above. However, if certain critical illness conditions of accidental character such as TPD, loss of limbs, etc. are included in the policy, the list of exclusions may be further extended to:

- Aviation - Hazardous sports and pastimes - Civil war and commotion - The survival period can be very important in a critical illness policy. To obtain payment from additional critical illness cover, it may be wise to make an agreement about a survival period. The survival period can be described as the time after which a critical illness takes place so that the insurer cannot award the payout. Thus, if the claimant dies during the survival period, the insurance company may not owe the claimant’s family a payout as per the terms and conditions. So, it could be wise to read the critical illness policy documents carefully before taking out the cover.