Few of us are covered against serious illness even though it may be fall us without warning. Unum Provident, the income protection provider, has carried out investigations that say that only 4.2 per cent of the Britons work force have critical illness cover, even though they will obtain a lump sum if they have  a heart attack, stroke or suffer from cancer.

16 per cent of the population consider the insurance to be too costly, the survey reveals, which give reasons for the low take up. But it can be surprisingly cheap – to find out get some life insurance quotes.

Potential customers are also perplexed by the wording of policies and the disparity between constant medical insurance , critical illness cover and life insurance.

An operational party put together by the AIB, is at this time re-evaluating the phraseology of policies. The situation might become much more  perplexing if the  operational party decides to reduce the amount of diseases defined as a critical illness.

Standard Life have launched a new plan named Elixia 123, which it declares cuts the price of critical illness insurance by about 32 per cent and sometimes by upto 50 per cent.

This will be realised by permitting clients to select the illnesses for which they require insurance. There are 3 groups of risk.

Group 1. Heart attacks, strokes and invasive cancer. The insurance will only make a settlement if the disease leads to major life style changes or is life threatening.

Category two. Illnesses that do not have so much impact on life expectancy but do dramatically affect life style. Alzheimer’s, blindness and Motor neurone disease  are incorporated in this category.

Group three. As one is unable to forecast what the future will hold.

Critical illness insurance is not that costly so it is advisable to go for a comprehensive insurance, which will give you complete protection.

Susan Pilks, the distribution development manager at PruHealth, is concerned about how the terms are defined. She emphasises that clients must comprehend precisely what they are purchasing. For example, when is a condition defined as major? The 1st and the 3rd categories need clarification before buying cover as there is not much to choose between them in her view. Difficulties can happen later if the consumer has not fully appreciated the terms of the insurance policy when they put pen to paper, says Nye Jones.