A guide to various health insurance related
policies available on our website
Accident Insurance
Accident insurance pays out a fixed amount
should you suffer a serious injury following an accident - typical examples are:
loss of arm or foot or loss of eyes. In a continental scale policy an accident
insurance policy will also pay out part of the sum insured for less serious
injuries - loss of toes or fingers. In addition to this the policy will pay a
fixed amount for permanent disablement or a weekly benefit (usually for 52 or
104 weeks) in the event of temporary total disablement (and possibly a lower
amount for temporary partial disablement).
We also offer accident insurance for children as
well as for amateur football club members
Sickness Insurance
Sickness insurance is normally added onto an
accident insurance policy and pays out an amount if you are unable to work due
to sickness. Again a weekly benefit is paid for temporary or partial disablement
due to sickness but in this case the benefit is almost always 52 weeks. Accident
and sickness policies should the first priority of anyone who is self employed.
Permanent Health Insurance
Unlike an accident/ sickness policy that pays a
benefit for a maximum of two years, a permanent health insurance policy
pays a benefit until the policy expires - traditionally at age 60 or 65 though
in today's pension uncertainty a higher age might be considered. Permanent
health insurance policies usually have an excess period when benefits are not
paid and it is often a good idea to take one with a 12 or 24 month excess in
conjunction with an accident/ sickness policy. Other benefits are that the
policy cannot be cancelled due to subsequent ill health and that an increasing
benefit can be selected to take care of inflation.
Critical Illness insurance
Critical illness insurance is often sold
in conjunction with a mortgage. A critical illness policy will pay out the sum
insured if and only if the policyholder subsequently suffers from one of a
specified number of medical conditions. The advantages of such a policy is that,
if the policyholder is unable to earn an income after one of the illnesses
covered, at least the mortgage will have been paid off. If you are considering
critical illness insurance, you should consider whether just an amount to cover
your mortgage is adequate. You undoubtedly will have other regular commitments
that you may be unable to pay so an increased amount of critical illness cover
may be preferable.
Private medical insurance
Despite vast expenditure on the NHS you may wish
to consider private medical insurance. Self-employed should definitely
consider private medical insurance as you may be unable to work after being
diagnosed with certain conditions e.g. a Hernia, that are low on the NHS
treatment priority. Going private should speed up the time to admission and
enable you to resume work quickly. Our private medical insurance policy has the
advantage that you will always be rated at the same age you were when you joined
the scheme.
Income protection (ASU) and Mortgage Protection Insurance
As well as products designed to help you cope
with accident and sickness, we offer a range of policies known as income
protection insurance, mortgage protection insurance and loan protection
insurance which extend your cover against loss of your job due to unemployment
or redundancy. The advantage of our income protection policies is that you do
not need a loan or mortgage to qualify (although better rates are available if
you take out a policy to protect your mortgage) and the rates are much cheaper
than found direct from a bank or building society.
Duty of Disclosure
Your health is your most important asset and,
whilst we cannot guarantee your health, our range of policies can help you
should you suffer from ill health in the future! You may have read in the press
about policies that have not paid out the sums insured - in almost all cases
this is due to the fact that the person who took out the policy failed to
disclose a material fact.
A material fact is one that would affect the
acceptance or underwriting of an insurance policy. Examples of material facts
for health insurance policies are: pre-existing medical conditions, possible
history of medical conditions in the family, the pursuit of dangerous
activities, smoking, obesity - the list is not exhaustive if you are in doubt
whether a fact is material it should be disclosed for your own protection as
failure to do so may result in your policy not protecting you in the event of a
claim.
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