I remember reading about this a while back. Johnnie Irwin, one of the presenters from “A place in the sun” was talking about how he had made a mistake by not taking out Critical Illness insurance.
He was also frustrated that Channel 4 would not allow him to continue working (Channel 4 said they were unable to get insurance). The article that made me write this is here.
The blunt and sad facts
In short he had no insurance and was unable to carry on working, this put him in a position where he was unable to provide for his family even at a time where he was still able to work.
But it is actually worse than that… Because he is still alive, its not just a case that he is not providing for his family. He is also costing them money. He still needs to eat and bath and get around.
That last paragraph I think is quite hard hitting. I used to work for an insurance company and I remember the first time that being mentioned in some training we had. It really hit me.
If you were to pass away, there is without doubt the sadness aspect to it. But from the financial aspect, although your income is no longer coming into the household you are not a financial cost.
However with a critical illness like this, it is almost like a double financial blow. You may no longer be contributing financially, but you are still an expense. Now of course, your family and loved ones would never think about it like that. However in the case of Johnnie Irwin, it seems like that aspect is playing on his mind and he is still having to do interviews – probably paid, in order to earn some extra money for his family.
I think it is also good that he is using his platform to make people think about it.
What is Critical Illness cover?
Critical illness is in short an insurance policy that pays out a lump sum if you are to get an illness from a list of conditions. Those conditions are things like certain cancers, stroke, heart attack and the like.
Should you take out Critical Illness and is it expensive?
Whether or not you should take it out depends a lot on you. Unfortunately nobody knows if or when you will have an illness. With Cancer now affecting 1 in 2 of us it is possible you may need to make a claim. With those statistics that does also mean there is a cost involved. How much will depend on how old you are when you take the policy out and also what your health is like at the time of taking out a policy.
Personally, I do not have critical illness. I opted for another type of policy called income protection. It is a little cheaper and rather than paying out a lump sum if you were to get one of the conditions on the list. It pays a monthly income regardless of the condition.
As my old manager used to say, its not as sexy as receiving a lump sum but it certainly helps should you need it.
Taking out Critical Illness
I really do not want to turn a mans misery into a sales opportunity. Rather than ask you to get in touch like I would ordinarily when discussing mortgages. Please just take a look into Life Insurance, Income Protection (also know as PHI) and Critical Illness.
You may not see the benefit in them and/or think they are a waste of money. Thats completely fine if that is the view you take. But it is better to think about it and decide against it then to not know about it to have the choice of making that decision.
One last thought on this – some people believe these policies do not pay out. The vast majority do pay out around 90% of the time. Take a look at an article I wrote here a few years ago.