Why do people shun Critical Illness Cover?

Life Critical Illness Cover is still a relatively new type of insurance.  Insurance premiums are set accoding to statistics and as such each year statistics and claims history are updated, premiums are adjusted accordingly.  Critical Illness Cover has got more expensive over the past 10 years for this reason.

Generally there are two types of people, those who see the sense in insurance and those who don’t.  For those who see the sense in insurances there are many to choose from and some are considered more important than others.  It never ceases to amaze me how people put the best type of insurance policy for their car or pet before their own personal insurance needs.  People in general take their health for granted and think that ‘it will never happen to me.’  Fully comprehensive car insurance is considered a must whilst life and critical insurance is considered an option.  One client recently said that his car insurance was worth it because his car was worth £40000.  He placed no value on his own life though.

For someone who arranges lots of mortgages I am surprised to see how many people there are who think that life insurance is just not necessary.  Even when questioned as to how a couple would manage if one partner were to die during the term of the mortgage, most couples just say that the surviving partner would sell the property.  Given the current residential sales market this option is not exactly a quick option and anyway, if you had lived happily in a house for 10 years and your partner died would you want to be made homeless yourself because you couldn’t afford the mortgage payments on one salary?

The fact that people shun critical illness cover is even more amazing.  The chances of being diagnosed with cancer are 1 in 3.  Cancer survival statistics are increasing each year but treatment still remains a long and often painful process.  Most people diagnosed with cancer cannot continue to work which usually means that they are not paid.  The mortgage still needs to be paid each month as do other household bills.  Could the partner meet these expenses on their salary or would most partners be needed for emotional and moral  support for the diagnosed partner?

The simply fact is that most people would jump at the chance of free critical illness cover but when asked to pay for it most are not interested.  This is such a big risk to take when your home and family are affected by that decision.