Zurich has discarded the standard critical illness template, replacing it with a fresh blueprint for its new range of critical illness plans.

It has introduced three levels of cover enabling consumers to select from a core version, a comprehensive option or an ‘all-inclusive’ plan.  Additionally, children’s cover has been rendered optional with a choice of two levels with the sum insured ranging from £10,000 to £100,000.  Pregnancy complications and congenital coverage are also now available as separate options.

Furthermore, a number of conditions have improved claim wordings as well as adding some new ones too.

The changes are as follows:

Payment structure:

• Three tiers of cover available – Critical Illness, Critical Illness Enhanced and Critical Illness Enhanced Plus
• Critical Illness includes 38 conditions and 2 additional payment conditions (lower of £25k or 25%)
• Critical Illness Enhanced includes 51 conditions plus 33 additional payment conditions (lower of £25k or 25%)
• Critical Illness Enhanced Plus includes benefit uplift and additional payment conditions lower of £50,000 or 50% of sum insured.  Any insured suffering from one of 16 serious conditions prior to age 55 receives an uplifted payment of 100% of the sum insured (maximum of £200,000).

Child & Pregnancy Cover:

• Children’s cover is now optional with a variable sum insured – £10,000 – £100,000 on a level basis and can be added to a life only plan or any of the three critical illness choices
• There are two levels of children’s cover – Core and Enhanced
• Both types of children’s cover offer an optional ‘early childhood cover’.  This incorporates specified congenital conditions that pay the selected level of children’s cover as well as complications of pregnancy, children’s enhanced death benefit and birth defect cover all fixed at £5,000.  This optional cover is designed to cover congenital conditions that are usually diagnosed prior to the age of 7.  This allows parents to remove this module once their child/children have passed this birthday
• Additionally included is premature birth hospital stay benefit paying £50 per night after 7 night’s stay
• The definition of a parent/guardian has been extended to include partners and surrogates.

Definition changes:

• The removal of HIV as a condition
• Anoxia/hypoxia has been consolidated into the Traumatic Brain Injury definition
• The claim wordings for cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension and less advanced cancer of the prostate have all been improved.  Less advanced cancer of the prostate now includes any form of medical treatment.

New 100% paying conditions:

• Neurodegenerative disorders where, rather than list conditions such as motor neurone disease, a claim is paid if any neurological conditions meet the claim requirements
• Severe bowel disease which includes crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis and many other ailments.

New additional payment conditions:

• The Enhanced/Enhanced Plus policies include additional payments for Severe sepsis, permanent pacemaker insertion and accidental hospitalisation