How to Make Sure Your Critical Illness Cover Pays Out
Around one in five UK men and one in six UK women will experience a critical illness before they turn 65. Despite this, the extra expense and bad press surrounding declined claims means that many people decide not to buy critical illness insurance.
Due to the higher risk of suffering a critical illness, this type of insurance is more expensive than traditional life insurance, and some companies reject up to 25% of their critical illness claims.
However, if you do your “homework” before getting critical illness cover, it’s definitely possible to ensure you end up with the right policy for you that will pay out should you need to claim.
So why are some critical illness insurance claims rejected? There are three main reasons:
1. The policyholder supplied incorrect information or failed to disclose important information at the time of applying for the insurance.
2. The policyholder did not follow insurance company protocol when seeking medical advice.
3. The policyholder did not realise that their illness was not covered by their insurance.
With these points in mind, there are three things you can do to ensure that your critical illness insurance pays out should you ever have to make a claim.
Make Sure All Information You Supply is Correct
The number one reason why a critical illness insurance claim is rejected is that the policyholder supplies incorrect information or withholds relevant information when applying for the insurance.
This is an extremely important point for the insurance company as they calculate your premiums based on information you supply, and if that information is inaccurate, they may end up charging you less than they would if you’d given them the right information. If you’re a smoker, for example, you can pay up to double the premiums of a non-smoker and deliberately leaving that information out of your application will therefore invalidate your claim. This situation can apply even if you fail to disclose information that does not directly affect the illness you make the claim for.
Note that in most situations you must disclose information about your family’s medical history as well as your own, and failing to disclose any aspect of this information can also result in your claim being invalidated.
Follow Your Insurers Terms and Conditions
Your insurance company will usually have certain rules about how you care for your health while you’re insured. This means, for example, that you must always take care to follow your doctor’s advice when you seek medical help. For example, if you discover that you have high blood pressure and then ignore your doctor’s advice for taking steps to reduce it, it’s likely that your claim will be rejected should you have to make one.
Read the fine print on your policy, and if there are any instructions of this kind, follow them to the letter.
Know What You’re Covered For
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