Andrew Wilkinson: Critical illness - What about the unlucky?

clock • 6 min read

Difficult-to-diagnose critical illnesses such as lupus can take years to confirm and misdiagnosis is common. How can we as an industry help ensure claims are paid?

Recently in Cover we read about the differing claims experience relating to two critical illness policies. Both companies paid the claim, which related to a stroke, though one company seemed to put the policyholder to more bother than was necessary. But not all critical illnesses are the same and while some can be diagnosed and claims dealt with relatively quickly, other critical illnesses can take much longer to diagnose. Lupus Take SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) for example, a currently incurable autoimmune disease where the body mistakenly attacks healthy body tissue. It can...

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