What medical conditions are considered to be 'critical'?

Critical Illness policies used to only cover 'obvious' critical illness such as heart attacks, strokes and cancer - now there are a lot more illnesses that are automatically covered.

When deciding on a Critical Illness policy, you need to consider carefully the list of critical illnesses that are insured. The brokers we work with only offer policies that have a full and extensive list of included illnesses.

The Insurance Company’s ‘Key Features’ document will list the insured illnesses, and when you get your application pack make sure you look at the list.

The most common critical illnesses that people think of are heart attack, stroke and cancer, but we have listed here the kind of illnesses that you are now likely to see included. The list will vary between insurance companies: -

Alzheimer’s disease
Aorta graft surgery
Aplastic anaemia
Bacterial Meningitis
Benign brain tumour
Blindness
Cancer
Cardiomyopathy
Chronic lung disease
Coma
Coronary artery by-pass surgery
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Deafness
Dementia
Heart attack
Heart valve replacement or repair
HIV or AIDs from an assault, blood transfusion, occupational duties or accident
Keyhole heart surgery
Kidney failure
Loss of independent existence
Loss of limbs
Loss of speech
Major organ transplant
Motor Neurone disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Paralysis/Paraplegia
Parkinson’s disease
Progressive Supranulcear Palsy
Stroke
Third degree burns
Total and Permanent Disability
Cover for children