Critical Illness Cover – Can You Do Without It | Good Ezines

by Michael Challiner

Take the case of what they’d call an ordinary family. Mum, Dad, two children. They were managing quite comfortably with Dad being the breadwinner in a steady job and Mum looking after the home and children. They’d just bought a caravan and were planning to take it over to France for their next holiday. Life was panning out fine, with the children settled in primary school and having lived in the area for ten years or so, they had lots of friends and a fairly good social life.

The husband, John, had been suffering mild headaches for a week or so, but put it down to rushing around too much. If it didn’t get any better, he’d go along and see the doctor, but it didn’t seem to be anything to worry about. One evening, after a very ordinary day, John was upstairs reading a bedtime story to the children, before going for a shower. When he didn’t re-appear after a while, his wife popped up to see what was going on. She found him collapsed on the floor in their bedroom. He’d obviously showered and was ready to come down again, but appeared to be completely lifeless.

The ambulance got there quickly and within minutes the paramedics told her he’d suffered a stroke and was very ill and it could be life threatening. Neighbours came to look after the children and the couple were rushed to hospital. Thankfully, John lived, although he had over two months in hospital before being transferred to a rehabilitation centre to learn to walk again. Eventually he started to walk, using sticks, we was told he wouldn’t be able to work again.

It seems that one in five people are likely to suffer a critical illness whilst they are still under retirement age. Whilst strokes are unusual in the younger age group, there is always the risk.

They’d been aware of the need for insurance. They’d taken out life insurance for John, as the breadwinner, when they first set up home together and got their first mortgage. If they’d also taken out critical illness cover, they’d have received a healthy lump sum within a couple of weeks of the confirmation of his stroke. They could then have had sufficient money to cope with buying things to make things easier. John received an early retirement pension and various government payments, but things were a struggle and his wife found it increasingly difficult to cope with family demands whilst fitting in a part-time job to help out financially.

Read more...