There had been various causes of critical illness in East Asia. As in other countries, probably the most common cause for critical illness in East Asia can be considered as cancer. A critical illness such as cancer may have brought around 77 percent of claims concerning men as in other Asian markets. Furthermore, heart attack and renal failure may have brought a handful of casualties with only around 7 percent of claims each.



Moreover, 5 percent of men had claimed for other critical illness conditions while 4 percent had claimed for stroke. On the other hand, 89 percent of women had claimed for a critical illness such as cancer. If we compare the result to that of men, the effect is seen to be more aggressive concerning women. Also, around 7 percent of women had claimed for renal failure followed by 1 percent for other critical illness conditions, 2 percent for stroke and finally 1 percent for a critical illness such as heart attack.

According to Munich Re, 2000, the accelerated plans may have been lesser exposed to critical illness risks than the standalone critical illness policies. Therefore, a study about the critical illness claims rates concerning rider policies may have been less informative than the main policies. The reason may be because main policies could be higher in number. It had however been noted that critical illness claims for riders may have been lower than that of main policies. Let's have a look.

For men insured under the main critical illness policy, around 736 claims out of nearly 935,563 policies could have been made. As for women with the same type of policy, approximately 949 critical illness claims out of nearly 203,994 policies could have been made. On the other hand, for rider policies, about 185 claims out of 292,806 policies could have been made by men. Concerning women, about 238 critical illness claims out of 304,644 policies could have been made. Roughly, the claim rate for riders may be around 0.708 and for main policies the critical illness claims rate may be around 0.915. The low claims rates for riders as compared to that of main policies may even be shown by age groups.

Furthermore, according to Liu SY, 2000, for a company to be able to compete effectively in the critical illness insurance market may depend on the number of diseases it covers. In Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia most policies may cover up to 36 critical illness conditions. Also, more than 50 different illnesses may have been offered as benefit triggers. However, the authorities in Taiwan have only accepted seven critical illness conditions. Many companies may cover seven major diseases. These can be considered as: cancer, stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, coronary artery bypass surgery, paralysis and major organ transplant. The other remaining critical illnesses may be offered by most companies.

Many companies add additional benefits besides their original critical illness plans. These benefits may not be found in the policy. For example, apart from covering frequent critical illnesses like encephalitis and meningitis, many policies may also add terminal illness as benefit trigger. By doing this, a better marketing for a more valuable critical illness related product can be done.