Critical illness cover, and the costs no health plan counts

Critical illness cover pays a cash sum on diagnosis of a listed condition — commonly cancer, heart attack and stroke. It is not health insurance and does not replace it. It exists because the bills that arrive with a serious diagnosis are mostly not medical bills.

The policy's value lives in its definitions. What counts as a covered cancer, whether a first heart attack has to be of a particular severity, what the waiting period is, and what happens at a second claim: those clauses are the product, not the headline amount.

• Paid directly to you, to spend on whatever the diagnosis actually costs
• Definitions read out loud before anyone signs an application
• Sized against your deductible, your out-of-pocket maximum and your income gap
• Compared against the living-benefit rider you may already own on a life policy