Long ago when someone suffered from a critical illness, his chance to survive could be slight. Nowadays, the advances in medical technology have made it possible for critical illnesses to be detected and treated earlier. As a matter of fact, survival rates have considerably increased. According to National Statistics Online, thousands of people who may not have survived a critical illness like cancer 10 years back may still be alive today.



Other reports show that around 80 percent of women suffering from a critical illness such as breast cancer may still be alive 5 years later. Figures also reveal that about 1.2 million people may be alive today after having undergone an intervention for a critical illness as heart attack.

While critical illness claims continue to gather each year and each day, it can also be noted that certain critical illness claims may also be rejected. But declined claims may have started to reduce. The reason behind can be that insurance companies may be educating their potential customers over the subject. By doing this, cases of non disclosure and non meeting critical illness policy definitions may be decreasing. Let's have a look at some figures.

According to Skandia, its recent figures reveal that critical illness rejected claims may have fallen by 3 percent as from February 2007 as compared to July 2006. Additionally, reports show that Skandia had paid around 88 percent of critical illness claims till February 2007. Therefore, when we go back to July 2006, only around 85 percent of critical illness claims could have been paid. The results thus go down to nearly GBP 181 million paid out to approximately 1,920 critical illness policy holders as of February 2007.

Furthermore, Skandia affirm that out of the 12 percent critical illness claims rejected 2 percent could have been due to non disclosure. The remaining 10 percent could have been turned down due to not meeting the policy definitions. Moreover, out of the 88 percent successful critical illness claims paid, 59 percent could be resulting from cancer. This percentage could have equaled an amount of about GBP 90.8 million as payments made to critical illness policyholders. On the other hand, 15 percent of critical illness claims could have come from heart attack while 8 percent revealed heart surgery and 7 percent could have been due to stroke.

However, the rate of cancer is much severe among women than among men. Skandia reported around 48 percent men claimed for this critical illness whereas about 78 percent of women claimed for a critical illness like breast cancer. 58 percent of people of both sex of all ages also claimed for the most common form of cancer.When you are on the verge of taking out a critical illness cover, check out for these exclusions in your policy documents.

Skandia is also the provider for critical illness cover for children. Reports demonstrate that cancer may be once more the leading cause for critical illness claims among children also. The result also stated that 12 percent of children as well contracted a critical illness such as bacterial meningitis followed by 4 percent for terminal illness. All these patients had an average of may be 7 years old.

Critical illness can affect anyone. As we have seen, children may also contract cancer, for example. Some insurance companies also include critical illness protection for children automatically in their policies. Therefore, critical illness insurance can be the right choice for you.