CIExpert - How is PruProtect different?

There are numerous ways in which the PruProtect plan not being included within the comparison section of CIExpert may yet be resolved, but it might prove useful to compare PruProtect with some of the other quality plans on the market.

PruProtect has many options, and for this comparison the comprehensive Serious Illness version with the ‘minimum protected account’, ‘booster’ and ‘children’s cover’ options excluded is used.   

The problem with any such evaluation is that it is like comparing a chimpanzee with a monkey; outwardly there is a similarity but, in reality, they are two different species.  Severity-based cover may often overlap with standard CI design but it varies in many ways, such as not applying a monetary limit on conditions that other insurers would term ‘partial payments’.

Conversely, for conditions for which other insurers agree 100% payments, it frequently pays out a lower percentage.

PruProtect advises that it covers 166 specific conditions.  Of these, only 26 are guaranteed to pay 100% of the insured amount, with a further 28 paying 100% or less depending on the severity level. The remaining 113 conditions will pay between 5% and 75% of the insured amount. 

Cancer is the most claimed-for condition, averaging 64% of all payments during 2012. To illustrate the differences between PruProtect and four leading insurers, we need to look at how the various cancer conditions are dealt with.

Table 1 shows that, unlike other insurers, PruProtect differentiates between cancer stages 1, 2 & 3.  Put simply, stage 1 cancer can usually be completely removed surgically if small enough; stage 2 has advanced but has yet to reach the lymph nodes; and stage 3 has advanced to the lymph nodes, from where it is able to spread throughout the body.

PruProtect pays 25% at stage 1, 50% at stage 2 and 100% if stage 3. This contrasts with the 100% paid at all stages by all other insurers. Conversely, other forms of pre-cancer such as Myelodysplasia provide for lower amounts but would not be covered by other insurers.

To truly compare the PruProtect cancer cover one needs full knowledge of the stages at which cancer sufferers are diagnosed. This information is rarely made available but for bowel cancer we know that 9% are diagnosed at stage 1, 24% at stage two and the remaining 67% at stages 3 & 4.

In simple terms, this means that for every 100 bowel cancer claimants, PruProtect would pay 25% to 9 claimants, 50% to 24 claimants and 100% to the remaining 67.
In conclusion, the trade-off is whether adviser and client prefer a wider range of coverage with the consequence of a possible lower percentage payout, or the certainty of payout for a lower number of conditions.

Alan Lakey is director of CIExpert Ltd