Medical development

A complication for critical illness insurance providers face is medical progress.

As research finds more and more cures and preventions for serious illnesses, it may be that you are diagnosed with a critical illness that has become a non critical but you are still entitled to a pay out under the terms of your contract.
More testing to reveal treatable early-stage cancers could lead to people being diagnosed years before any symptoms actually develop.
More sophisticated testing may show that more people have had previously undetectable heart attacks.
Improvements in genetic testing might allow some people to know that they are at higher risk of suffering a particular critical condition.

This is an interesting area that is worth keeping an eye on, especially if you are considering swapping an old plan for a new one.

To research your critical illness position further you can use our exclusive interactive research tool, the critical illness finance navigator.