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Critical illness claim

Discussion
Posted by mc2
22/10/20 01:42 PM

Hello

My child has progressive hearing loss (which started when she was about 5 after having passed new born hearing checks) and has recently been approved for receiving cochlear implants and is on the waiting list.

We have a pre-existing critical illness policy which covers our children for illnesses too.

Has anyone had any success or experience in making a critical illness claim in respect of their deaf child/(ren)?

My insurer's definition of deafness indicates a loss of more than 90 db across all frequencies on an audiogram, which is far more stringent than the NICE guidelines for the prescription of Cochlear Implants.  I'm interested in any advice or stories of success in making a claim or challenging the definition of deafness insurers may hold.

My thoughts are a child would  not be recommended for Cochlear Implants is they were not severely to profoundly deaf and therefore should qualify as deaf in the eyes of the insurance company?!

Many thanks

Discussion
Posted by Claire ndcs moderator Moderator
17/12/20 03:30 PM

Hello,

Thank you for starting this thread. I’m sorry you’ve not had any comments yet - the community is still quite new and hopefully other parents will respond in time.

We checked with our policy team and they were only aware of older children and adults with an acquired loss receiving critical illness cover. They also noted that the usual issue with deaf children and critical illness cover is that it is counted as a pre-existing condition at the time the policy is taken out.

We also have links with local support groups around the UK. Many of these have a Facebook page where you can connect with their members and contact them directly, as there may be some parents who have experiences with taking our critical illness cover.

I hope this helps but if you’d like further advice or support, you’d also be very welcome to contact our Helpline.

Take care,

Claire

Your Community moderator team