Legal & General is enhancing its critical illness (CI) product to include four new illnesses and wider definitions for eleven conditions.
The four new illnesses are:
• Mastectomy for ductal carcinoma in situ - requiring total removal of the breast;
• Multiple system atrophy - resulting in permanent symptoms;
• Open heart surgery - with median sternotomy;
• Removal of an eyeball - due to injury or disease.
The provider says the mastectomy cover is the first time it has introduced a severity based cover, with an additional 25% of sum assured or £25,000 (whichever is lower) being available.
It also says the eleven new definitions are over and above the ABI standard and are designed to highlight when a policy will and won't pay out, helping to improve consumer confidence in the industry.
Last year Legal & General declined 4.6% of CI claims for not meeting policy definitions.
Bonnie Burns, protection product and technical director at Legal & General, says: "When people take out critical illness they want to know exactly what they are covered for and they want confidence that their policy is going to pay out if they have a valid claim.
