AIA Chiangmai

In common with the rest of Europe, life expectancy in Britain is increasing. A man can now expect to live to 76.2 years and a woman to 80.7 years. This is wonderful news, but unfortunately we also learn that Britain is not keeping pace with most of Europe in another health aspect.

Healthy life years, as well as life expectancy have been the subject of a recent EU study and the results were based on questionnaires which were completed by some 60,000 householders. The focus of the study was on death, sickness rates and overall health.

We learn that although the average British male can expect to live to 76.2 years of age, he can only expect 61.5 of these years to be free from a disabling condition. This puts us in the unfortunate position of being the fifth unhealthiest group in the EU.

Research into these findings, still at an early stage, has not yet found the reasons for the wide variations across the EU. It seems that as far as cardiovascular disease is concerned, there is an increasing risk the further north you go and Help the Aged feel that a lack of respect for the cold in Britain constitutes a risk to health.

Italy holds the top position in the healthy living stakes, with an expectation of 70.9 healthy years and a life expectancy of 76.8 years. The healthy Italian diet, including lots of fish, vegetables and unsaturated fats, may be a key factor in their country’s excellent health record. A spokesman for Help the Aged comments that diet, smoking, the weather, smoking and health service could help to explain the differences

Interestingly, in a published table showing both healthy years and life expectancy, as far as healthy life goes, Italy tops the table, followed by Spain, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, UK, France, Hungary, Portugal and Finland. It will be interesting to see what the final conclusions turn out to be.

At the bottom of the scale - if you come from Finland, life expectancy for a woman is 81.8 years, but you can only expect 56.5 of these to be without a disabling condition.

Bearing all these facts in mind, it’s obvious that, for Mr and Mrs Average, it would be as well to give some serious thought to the provision of both critical illness cover and life insurance. It’s a serious thought that the expectation of a disabling health condition precedes retirement age by between three and half and eight and a half years. Many men now expect to be able to work until they are 70.

Critical illness insurance will pay out a specific sum if you’re unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with one of a list of specified conditions, such as cancer, stroke or heart trouble. Read the policy carefully to check which conditions are covered. The effect of critical illness on your lifestyle can be immense. You may have to adapt your car or your home and even change your employment to suit your new circumstances. Critical illness cover will give you peace of mind should illness strike.

As far as your family are concerned, it would be a good time to take out, or review, your life insurance plans. Would their lifestyle be affected should the worst happen?

Both of these insurances can be taken care of easily. The internet is the place to go for immediate attention and a range of competitive quotations. Contact an on-line broker, who’ll offer you all the help you need.

Then sit back and prove the tables wrong.

Life insurance professionals great articles based around life assurance.

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You have taken out a critical illness insurance policy so that if you ever are in the unfortunate situation of developing a life threatening condition, you will be compensated.

But what if you wind up with a critical illness that is not guarded against on the insurance policy? What many people do not realise, and what can be of real concern, is that you may find that after you have purchased critical illness insurance you are only covered for up to 35 listed medical conditions. And this is the deal with most insurance policies. So if you develop a life threatening illness not named in your policy you could be faced with the disastrous situation where you get no pay out from your insurance company at all.

On the other hand, it could be that you have an easily treatable sickness and because it is ranked with what the insurance industry calls a “lower grading”, you end up getting a full payout.

The Financial Services Authority and the Association of British Insurers are wary about whether insurance companies actually make these differences clear.
Jonathan French, a spokesman at the Association of British Insurers, says it is important that customers have an insurance policy fully explained to them before it gets purchased. “The situation we would not want to see occurring is for them to be buying a product thinking that it does something it doesn’t do.”

And for this reason, the ABI recently updated its codes of best practice for critical illness insurance. French says until recently, 35 conditions was the maximum number any company covered for critical illness insurance.

“What we set out are essentially the minimum standards companies have to apply to their policy. The guidance we have published improves the way the critical illnesses are defined. It makes it clear to consumers what levels of illness are covered and what aren’t.”

The cost of critical insurance varies. For someone in their late 30s for a 35-year term with a payout of

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Unless you have substantial savings, even in the UK, contacting a serious illness, such as cancer, can be a very costly affair. Above all, not only do you need to consider how contracting such a critical illness will affect your savings in any medical care bills, but you also need to consider that you may well not be able to earn any income to cover you day-to-day expenditure. As a result, making sure you take out a critical illness insurance may well be one of the wisest and astute financial decisions you make.

What Is Critical Illness Insurance?

In short, a critical illness insurance policy is very much like any other insurance policy you take out. Here, however, your premiums go towards insuring that you do not contract a critical illness. In the event that you do contract a critical illness, your UK insurance provider will pay you out a tax-free lump sum to help you cover the day-to-day costs of having to live with your new medical condition.

Are There Any Limitations With Critical Illness Insurance?

Yes; it is essential that you look at the list of critical illnesses that your insurance policy covers, as these will be the only illness under which the policy will pay-out. In other words, the UK insurance provider will not pay-out on the policy simply because you have a doctor’s certificate that you have a critical illness, it needs to be one of the designated critical illness.

Moreover, if you are considered by the UK insurance provider to be a high risk - for example, if you smoke - then it is likely that either you will not be able to obtain the critical illness insurance, or your insurance premiums will be significantly higher than if this were not to the case. Importantly, you will need to disclose whether or not you have any existing conditions, in which case these will likely not be included, and whether or not your family has a history of the illnesses set out in the policy, in which case this will likely affect your premium payments.

How Will I Be Paid?

As mentioned, with a critical illness insurance your UK insurance underwriter will pay you out a lump-sum tax free amount once you contract one of the critical illnesses listed in the policy. Having paid out the lump-sum amount, your relationship with the UK insurance provider will come to an end. In other words, you will not have an ongoing relationship with the insurance provider paying you intermediate payments.

Is It Worth Having Critical Illness Insurance?

The question of whether or not there is any value in you having a critical illness insurance will depending largely on your age, expenses, and whether or not you have any other insurance. Essentially, critical illness insurance covers an area for which other types of insurance can be obtained. However, unlike other types of insurance, this is a very specific insurance policy paying out for a very specific purpose. That said, there is a strong argument that you can never really have too much insurance and will numbers seemingly showing that more and more of us contracting critical illnesses as we grow as an aging population, this type of UK insurance is always useful.

Joseph Kenny writes for the credit card comparison site CardGuide.co.uk. The site is full of credit card information, news and tips including credit card insurance

Visit the site today: http://www.cardguide.co.uk

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