Critical illness cover - claiming

Turnip2011

I was diagnosed with Stage 1 invasive cervical cancer late last year, I had a hysterectomy and lymph node removal (thankfully it hadn’t spread to lymph nodes) . I have a Critical Illness legal and general group policy through my employer so was thinking of making a claim. Keen to see if anyone else has been in a similar situation and whether claims were successful for Stage 1 cancer. 

DullGreyGuy

Turnip2011 said:

I was diagnosed with Stage 1 invasive cervical cancer late last year, I had a hysterectomy and lymph node removal (thankfully it hadn’t spread to lymph nodes) . I have a Critical Illness legal and general group policy through my employer so was thinking of making a claim. Keen to see if anyone else has been in a similar situation and whether claims were successful for Stage 1 cancer. 

Do you have a copy of the policy? Your employer should be able to give you one if you dont. 

Each policy has its own definitions of what it will and won't cover, cancer often has different definitions depending on where the cancer is or if it's a particular cellular type. 

Looking at a random policy, which may be very different to your wording, there is nothing specific for cervical cancer but it does have the following exclusion:

All cancers which are histologically classified as any of the following:

– pre-malignant;

– cancer in situ;

– having either borderline malignancy; or

– having low malignant potential.

So were your policy wording the same it would depend on what the classification is by your doctor/the lab

Turnip2011

Thanks yes it says this in my policy and my cancer wasn’t any of these so on face of it would think it’s covered but as it’s stage 1 I feel they will maybe not pay out. But can’t see anything in policy that says that so nothing to loose by giving a claim a go I guess and see what happens 

DullGreyGuy

Turnip2011 said:

Thanks yes it says this in my policy and my cancer wasn’t any of these so on face of it would think it’s covered but as it’s stage 1 I feel they will maybe not pay out. But can’t see anything in policy that says that so nothing to loose by giving a claim a go I guess and see what happens 

A little bit of time filling in forms etc but thats the worst of it; there are no other negatives from having a claim declined.

If the cancer hadn't spread is it still in situ or not I have no idea but that will be dealt with by the medical professionals who fill in their bits when the claim is assessed. 

Turnip2011

The cancer is classed as 1A2 so not in situ as it spread to surrounding tissue 
as you say no harm in claiming and see what happens 

dunstonh

Don't be afraid of claiming.  Indeed, you may well be surprised at how helpful the insurers claim lines are nowadays.     Many of them will pre-screen the claim by talking through the details over the phone with a view to  weeding out those that are not covered vs those that are.

Insurers get a bad rap a lot of the time but having handled many claims, most of the time they are better than the perception.  So, give their claims line a call and see what they say.