In a sign that the critical illness insurance business is becoming cleaner, Standard Life, the major life insurance provider, have reported a fall in the number of critical illness cover claims that it has denied.
Critical illness insurance is a policy that pays out if the policyholder is diagnosed with a serious illness. In the past, the insurance product has been criticised for not paying out on claims. Insurance companies have been slated for turning down around 20 per cent of claims on the basis of non-disclosure. In some cases insurance companies have refused to pay because of very minor, unrelated items of medical history.
Over the course of 2006, Standard Life only turned down 7.5 per cent of claims. When someone with a policy makes a claim, the insurer trawls through medical records to assess whether there is something that has not been revealed. In some instances, this can be devastating.




