I always struggle when it comes time to story plan for our annual critical illness feature. The product is a logical one — it offers lump sum payments to victims of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer, along with such conditions as Alzheimer's and kidney failure. It's also affordable — premiums may be as low as $20 per month for some policyholders. And it's relatively simple to obtain, with most companies offering simplified underwriting and jet issue for lower-end policies.
Then why is it still such a relatively unknown product? In 2009, voluntary critical illness sales represented only 2 to 4 percent of total voluntary sales, while cancer insurance stood at 8 percent, according to Eastbridge Consulting, even though CI sales had increased nearly 88 percent between 2008 and 2009, and cancer sales had dropped by 8 percent.
CI clearly has a lot of catching up to do: Since it debuted on the U.S. market in1998, just 60,000 individuals have purchased critical illness. Of those, according to the American Association of Critical Illness, 24 percent of individual and 65 percent of voluntary buyers opted for $20,000 or less worth of coverage.
