Health insurance group Universal Provident is calling for medical and insurance professionals to be ...
Health insurance group Universal Provident is calling for medical and insurance professionals to be banned from taking out critical illness cover because it believes they use insider knowledge to profit from claims.
The group said most critical illness claims in the first 12 months of a policy are paid to people in the medical and insurance professions and that this means premiums go up for other policyholders.
John Pardoe, managing director of Universal Provident, said: "One morning they wake up, feel a lump and decide to take out a policy - before they have a check-up. This sort of insider dealing puts the price of premiums up substantially. That is why we propose that members of the medical profession and insurance business should be banned from taking out critical illness policies.
"Excluding this 5% of the population will have a significant impact on the premiums paid by the rest, which seems to me to be fully justifiable. It is not fair that a large proportion of our clients' contributions should subsidise those in the know."
But Brian Lentz, principal of IFA firm Portfolio Insurance Consultancy and Mortgage Brokers, said: "It is unreasonable to exclude any particular group just because they may have specialist knowledge."
