Serious illness cover is a form of financial protection that offers a cash lump sum if you are diagnosed with a serious illness or disease. 

You may think that you will never need this type of insurance but it has been estimated that 42,000 people in Ireland will be diagnosed with cancer each year (Irish Cancer Society), and that there are 6,000 heart attacks each year in Ireland (croi.ie).

Serious illness cover, also known as critical illness cover or specified illness cover,  is a valuable form of protection that offers financial security if you are diagnosed with one of the list of serious illnesses covered by your insurer leaving you unable to work and pay for your medical bills or essential expenses.

Serious Illness Cover

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What illnesses are covered?

Most insurers offer full or partial payment for a range of illnesses including heart attack, stroke, and some forms of cancer. 

The insurers who offer serious illness cover offer different levels of cover for different illnesses but all of them offer financial protection where you are diagnosed with:

  • Alzheimer’s or dementia
  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • Kidney failure
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Motor Neurons Disease
  • Brain tumor
  • Cardiac arrest
  • Major organ transplant

Serious illness insurance offers a full payment of the agreed cover amount for more severe diseases or conditions that are listed in your policy. There is also a partial payment for less severe or life altering forms of illness eg. less severe or invasive forms of cancer.

Serious illness cover can be purchased as a standalone policy, or alongside a life insurance or mortgage protection policy. If you purchase serious illness cover alongside your life insurance, you may be able to choose serious illness cover as an additional form of protection or as accelerated serious illness cover.

What illnesses are covered by serious illness cover in Ireland

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Benefits of serious illness cover

There are numerous benefits of having serious illness cover in place:

Your cover amount  is the amount of the lump sum which you wish the serious illness cover to provide for a full payment. Partial payment may be 50% of this amount for less severe illnesses or conditions.

Consider your income, your regular outgoings, and potential medical and care costs when choosing your cover amount. Bear in mind that there will be additional expenses when you are diagnosed with a serious illness such as accommodation, hospital parking, and maybe childcare or other care expenses as well as medical bills.

Serious illness cover generally offers premiums that are fixed for the term of the policy, unless you choose to protect against inflation. This is helpful for budgeting or financial planning.

If you choose indexation, or if you change your policy and increase the cover amount during the term, your premiums may rise during the term of the policy

You can choose to protect yourself and your spouse on the same serious illness policy. Dual cover will pay if either policyholder is diagnosed with a serious illness during the term of the policy.

Most serious illness policies will include reduced cover for children at no extra cost, so you may receive a lower payment if your child is diagnosed with a serious illness. 

Although finances may not be your priority when a loved one is diagnosed with a serious illness, illness in the family takes its toll on your finances and can also affect the ability or a spouse or parent to work, impacting the family’s income at a stressful time.

Choosing a conversion option allows you to extend the term of your policy, or purchase a new policy later in life based on your health when you first took out serious illness cover.

Although you will pay a slightly higher premium for serious illness insurance with a conversion option, it can be useful if you need to change your policy or extend your cover when you are older or have developed health issues.

If you choose indexation when you purchase a serious illness policy, then your cover amount will increase slightly each year, or at regular intervals, to allow for the effects of inflation on the original cover amount.

This will mean that you may pay higher premiums as the term of the policy goes on, but will benefit from a higher cover amount.

If you are chiefly concerned about receiving a serious cancer diagnosis and its effect on your life and finances, it is possible to purchase serious illness cover that protects you in the event of a cancer diagnosis only.

Cancer cover may be more affordable than full serious illness cover, making it more accessible to you.

Some insurers offer additional forms of support when you purchase serious illness cover such as access to nurse or GP phone lines, medical second opinion services, mental health support, and bereavement support.

These supports can be valuable at times of stress, such as on diagnosis of a serious illness.

Benefits of serious illness cover

Cost of serious illness cover

Your serious illness cover premiums are based on several factors such as:

If you have had previous health issues or you have a current health condition, you may pay more for serious illness cover, or face exclusions in cover. You may not be able to purchase serious illness cover if you are currently waiting for the results of medical tests.

It is likely that you will pay a higher premium for serious illness cover if you purchase a policy when you are older. Premium prices reflect the potential risk of the policyholder making a claim and this rises as you get older.

If you smoke, vape, or use nicotine replacement products, you will face a higher premium for many types of  insurance, including serious illness cover. If you have been nicotine free for twelve months or over, you may be able to purchase a serious illness policy at the same terms as a non-smoker.

The higher the amount of cover you specify in your serious illness policy, the higher the premium will be. Likewise, if you purchase serious illness cover as a standalone policy, rather than as part of your life insurance policy, you will pay a higher premium.

As a general rule, the longer you wish a serious illness cover policy to offer protection, the higher your premium will be. This reflects the older age that the policy will offer protection for.

The premium you pay for serious illness cover will reflect the cover amount in your policy. If you require a higher cover amount, you will pay a higher premium for serious illness cover.

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Serious illness cover and life insurance

You can purchase serious illness cover as a standalone insurance product irrespective of any life cover you may have. 

This type of cover may be more expensive but, if you do not have life insurance in place, or if the serious illness cover insurer you choose offers better protection for a condition or illness you have concerns about, for example, then you may wish to purchase standalone serious illness cover.

If you choose to purchase serious illness cover as part of a life insurance policy, you may choose additional cover or accelerated cover.

Additional serious illness cover, purchased with a life insurance policy pays out the agreed cash lump sum included on diagnosis of a serious illness in your policy irrespective of any life insurance sum assured ie.the amount of cover or sum assured is in addition to the sum insured in your life insurance.

Accelerated serious illness cover means that if you are diagnosed with a serious illness and your policy provides the cash lump sum, then your life insurance sum assured will be reduced by the serious illness lump sum paid. This form of serious illness cover is likely to be cheaper than choosing standalone cover or additional cover.

Serious illness cover and life insurance

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Who provides serious illness cover in Ireland?

Serious illness cover is provided by the five main life insurers in Ireland, It may be provided as specified illness cover, or as critical illness cover.

Aviva - Home Insurance
irish life
Zurich - Home Insurance

Cancer cover, which offers protection for a cancer diagnosis only, is provided by:

AIG - Home Insurance
Zurich - Home Insurance

Other forms of insurance that offer cover for serious illness

You may be wondering about the differences between all of the types of insurance that offer financial protection when you have a serious illness. Here are the different forms of insurance which offer protection where you are diagnosed with a serious illness:

Serious illness cover, also known as critical illness cover or specified illness cover, offers a cash lump sum when you are diagnosed with a serious illness, disease or condition. You may use this cash lump sum as you wish, be it paying medical bills, covering your rent or mortgage, or paying off debt or for other regular outgoings.

Income protection offers a monthly income where you are unable to work as a result of an illness or injury. Income protection can protect up to 75% of your salary for any illness, injury, or disability which prevents you from working. There is a time period called the deferred period before you receive any benefit, however.

Health insurance offers financial protection where you have hospital or other medical bills and expenses. Generally the benefit is either paid directly to the healthcare provider or hospital, or reimbursed when you present receipts for health expenditure to your insurer.

Life insurance pays a cash lump sum to your family or dependents after you die. There is sometimes very limited provision for the life insurer to pay the benefit if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness and have limited time left to live, however, this is not always the case.

Contact us today

You never know what is around the corner for you or a family member. We all hope that we will stay well, but unfortunately statistics show that this may not be the case.

If you wish to put financial protection in place so that you do not have to worry about money at a difficult time, choose serious illness cover.

Our insurance experts can advise you on the best type of serious illness cover for your needs and find you affordable cover that suits you.

Fill out our online form, or call our advisers and put essential serious illness protection in place today.

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