Critical Illness Cover or Income Protection

ACG

OK, that explains it.
Protection is quite complex once you drill down beyond the basics.

Critical illness, on the face of it you go with either the cheapest or the one that covers the most conditions? But what are those conditions? Which of them are ABI+? It is all well and good have ABI+ on CJD (mad cows disease) but are you ever likely to get it? I would rather have ABI+ on Cancer or stroke, or both!

Income protection, you have mentioned the deferred period, but what about guaranteed or reviewable premiums? Do you want level or increasing cover? if increasing what level of increments?

That is before you get on to the extra benefits. As an example, I took my insurance out with a provider who includes something that no other company does. I actually took out the insurance solely for that benefit. It costs about £5 a month for the benefit but for me, I would rather have that than critical illness (if it were a choice of one or the other).

There is nothing wrong with L&G or LV, they both have decent policies. But Protection is quite complex once you get beyond the basics.

But as the old saying goes, some cover is better than none.

FIRSTTIMER

What was your additional benefit and why did you take it out?

ACG

Its called Best Doctors (there are 2 versions of it).

We had a little girl earlier this year who had a bit of a difficult time in the first 2-3 months. Best Doctors allowed us to send off her medical reports to get a second opinion on what the issue was and how to treat it (NHS will just tell you what is available to them).

As it happens we did not need to send off her medical records, but the NHS had our baby have a biopsy, which turned out to be unnecessary. They had narrowed down her problems to 2 things - without telling us.

One was quite major and would have involved major surgery the other just a change to her diet. It turned out to be the latter thankfully, but had we known the options and had it discussed with us, we would have changed her diet for 2-3 weeks to see if that resolved the problem rather than putting her through a biopsy which was pretty upsetting for me and her mum, especially as we turned up to the hospital completely unaware what was about to happen.

Best Doctors allows you to send off your medical reports to get a second opinion on the condition and also the best form of treatment. It will also pay for certain treatments (serious ones) whether that treatment be in the UK or anywhere else in the world.

But other providers have other benefits rolled in instead of that, that you might find more useful/appealing.

(Just to add, I am not bashing the NHS. I completely support them but I am not happy with how they dealt with us on this occasion).

Weighty1

Personally I would look at other providers for critical illness than L&G. Whilst L&G have a decent claims history their current critical illness offering is just about the worst on the market in terms of number of full payout conditions covered and partial payment conditions. For a few pence more you could likely get a far more comprehensive plan.

Obviously, just my 2c.