These policies are now very widely taken out in Europe. Not many years ago 95% of those diagnosed with a Heart Attack and many Cancers did not survive. Nowadays these and many other critical illnesses are more often than not survived. A life policy will pay out if you die. A private health policy should get you treated immediately. But neither pays your mortgage or replaces your salary if you suffer a critical illness and survive.

These policies are not related to any form of treatment. Nor do they pay directly for any treatment. They just pay out a certain sum of money if you are diagnosed with a critical illness. If you want to wait for treatment on the NHS and pocket the money, pay off your mortgage or spend it on a holiday after your treatment that’s OK. For example you may not have a private health policy, get diagnosed with a critical illness and if your payout is for example £100,000 you can pay for private treatment and probably still have money to spare

Try if possible to include total permanent disability with critical illness policies. Don’t leave yourself in the situation of being disabled for example in a car accident and the insurer saying that’s not an illness.
If you suffer from any serious health problems or have a hazardous occupation etc you should seek good independent advice before placing a policy. In these cases different companies take very different attitudes to setting premiums. This is where The Health Insurance Shop can provide you with the expert advice you require.

GUARANTEED PREMIUMS. This is where the premium is set at the outset and will not rise at any time during the life of the policy.

REVIEWABLE PREMIUMS (Type A). This is where the premiums are set for a period of time, Usually 5 years. You pay this premium for the first 5 years and in the 6th year you will be told of any increase. It will happen again in the 11th year of the policy and so on every 5 years until the policy expires. These premiums are usually lower in the first periods.

REVIEWABLE PREMIUMS (Type B). This has been introduced recently by one Insurance company. It is where you pay the premium asked for the first 12 months and they then review it each 12 months (rather like car insurance policies).