Aviva Group Critical Illness
Aviva has updated its group CI cover, around benefits for children and widening the cancer cover. The children’s benefits include:
Cover for child-specific illnesses. Aviva says this is a UK first in group CI and the new, enhanced policy now covers children if they are diagnosed with:
- Cerebral palsy.
- Cystic fibrosis.
- Muscular dystrophy.
- Spina bifida.
- Hydrocephalus - treated with the insertion of a shunt.
Cover is also provided if a child needs intensive care treatment requiring mechanical ventilation for seven days, or if they suffer a loss of independent existence which would continue to affect them throughout their life.
The previous 30 day age limit has been removed. This means children are now covered from birth and against congenital conditions diagnosed during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth.
If a child has a critical illness or one of the above child-specific conditions, if the parent is an Aviva group CI member, they receive a payment of up to 25% of the policyholder’s benefit up to a maximum of £20,000.
With regard to the cancer changes, these include:
Making the existing ‘Cancer – Second and Subsequent’ option standard as well as extending cover to the spouse/partner of an employee.
Offering access to a Cancer Drugs Fund benefit as an additional option selected by the policyholder (the employer) across both Standard and Extended cover options.
The ‘Second and Subsequent’ cancer definition means that both the employee and their spouse or partner can now claim if diagnosed with a new unrelated cancer. Employers can now provide cover to extended family members who have previously been diagnosed with cancer and may not be able to get cover elsewhere.
The Cancer Drugs Fund benefit is an optional extra, so the employer can choose to include it and if they do, it provides a fund of up to £100,000 to pay for cancer medication which has been rejected by their NHS trust on financial grounds.
A 28 page technical guide for advisers explains all the product’s technical features.
Comment: Although group CI remains some way behind its bigger group life and group CI cousins, it nevertheless holds an important place in the overall UK protection insurance market, not just in the group space. Now, Aviva’s plan can also pay out on children-specific illnesses and that is likely to be welcomed by any potential or new parent.
Having an optional cancer cover extension is useful too, although the drugs fund increase is optional, and so some employers may choose not to have it.
Both types of change are therefore useful, although neither is likely to dramatically increase take-up on its own. As with individual CI, group CI is in need of further innovation and this is a good start, particularly if it prefaces further innovation to come.
Plus points: Aviva claims a UK first in offering child-specific illness cover on group CI; Improvements to cancer cover are useful too; Both types of improvement benefit both employer and employee .
Not so plus points: Group CI cover tends to be simpler but often less extensive than individual CI; The cancer extension is optional; Children’s cover is already common on individual CI; Group CI literature is (perhaps understandably) often less individual-focused than is individual CI; Group CI is dwarfed by group IP and group life and more innovation is needed to help grow the market.
Website: http://www.aviva.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 8. Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: CI; Aviva