Home / Critical illness cover / - Stroke
Background information
Each year about 100,000 people in this country suffer a first stroke -10,000 of these are under retirement age.
Of those people who have a stroke, around one third die within a year, one third are left with serious disabilities and one third make a good recovery.
Stroke is the largest single cause of severe disability, with 300,000 people being affected at any one time.
(The Stroke Association, 2002)
In 2000, over 60,000 deaths were due to stroke. That's over 160 people dying every day.
(Office for National Statistics, 2001)
Definition
A cerebrovascular incident resulting in permanent neurological damage. Transient ischaemic attacks are specifically excluded.
What does this mean?
As with a heart attack the cause of a stroke is inadequate blood supply, this time to the brain. It can be caused by a blood clot becoming caught in an artery of the brain or the bursting of one of the brain’s blood vessels.
The event that triggers the stroke may result from problems within the body, such as clogged up arteries, or weaknesses in the wall of a blood vessel. Alternatively, a stroke may be caused by an external trauma such as a severe head injury received in a road traffic accident.
After a true stroke there is always permanent brain damage which can cause paralysis to the right or left sides of the body, loss of speech or sight, and other effects such as loss of strength or mobility. In some cases, the damage may be quite minor, but it will depend upon which part of the brain was affected. Transient ischaemic attacks are often known as ministrokes but do not result in permanent damage. They are therefore excluded.
16 July 2007 11:40:15
Top UK life insurance firm Legal & General (L&G) has argued that they are always on the lookout for ways to help customers avoid having their critical illness claims rejected for non-disclosure.
The provider declined 12.2 per cent of critical illness insurance claims last year for non-disclosure, and welcomed the new guidelines for critical illness definitions introduced by the Association of British Insurers.
An L&G spokesman said that keeping customers informed was crucial for the entire insurance industry.
"We welcome any move by a life insurer to improve customer confidence in critical illness cover," he commented.
"However, what many people may not realise is that, under certain circumstances, the industry already pays claims where there is non-disclosure that had no effect on the application terms."
He continued: "We are constantly looking at ways of reducing non-disclosure and there are clear, unequivocal warnings on our application forms."
L&G paid out on 83.3 per cent of critical illness claims made in 2006, awarding a total of £92 million.
07 July 2008 18:36:46
Cancer survival rates have doubled in the 60 years since the NHS was founded, new research has revealed which could have an affect on life insurance policies.
Although the incidence of cancer has increased as a result of people living longer and the population increasing, patients are now twice as likely to survive the disease.
The results show that survival rates for patients with colon cancer have risen from just 18 per cent to 47 per cent.
Cancer Research UK reported that 77 per cent of patients now survive breast cancer compared with 37 per cent in 1946.
Harpal Kumar, chief executive of the charity, said: "The improvement in cancer survival, over the years, is a testament to the world class research that has resulted in earlier diagnosis and better treatments for patients."
Mr Kumar warned, however, that there was still a lot of work left to do to improve cancer detection methods and provide tailored treatment for patients.
Keepthedoctoraway.co.uk said that although survival rates for stomach and lung cancer have improved marginally "they both remain difficult to beat".
The cost of UK life insurance could be affected by those that have family members who have suffered cancer.
01 October 2007 16:39:55
Critical illness
cover is likely to grow in importance as new research suggests a standard treatment for prostate cancer may encourage the disease to spread.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins medical school in the US found that androgen deprivation therapy could encourage cancerous cells to produce a protein that makes them spread throughout the body.
The researchers emphasised their discovery is too preliminary for prostate cancer patients or doctors to stop using the treatment as it is effective at slowing tumour growth.
David Berman, assistant professor of oncology at the school, said the potential problem with treatments that suppress testosterone was identified after the gene coded for the protein was discovered to be active in lab-grown human prostate cancer cells.
However while cells taken from men who had surgery to remove their cancer did not contain the protein, cells from those who had died from the cancer did.
"Patients who eventually die because their disease spreads are almost certain to have received this type of therapy," commented the professor.
The finding could potentially lead to changes in the standard treatment for what can be a deadly disease.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, and critical illnesslife insurance policies online.
