As the 1990's closed by, more and more people started to gain interest in having a critical illness cover. It was not long before 100,000 critical illness policies may have been sold during the same year. This may have been the first sign of the growth of critical illness insurance. As a matter of fact, market surveys effectively revealed that the growth may continue consistently for the following years. People may have started to find useful the aspect of direct benefit which critical illness insurance offers. Therefore, by the year 1997, around 633,000 critical illness policy sales may have been recorded. Furthermore, the following year may have been even more successful. Around 695,000 critical illness policies may have already been sold. By the end of 1998, the amount of policies sold summed up to 2.25 million.

Furthermore, critical illness may occur due to certain risk factors. These risk factors may be related to the circulatory system, cardio and cerebrovascular systems. In this context, smoking may be considered as a risk factor as it may damage these systems and may as a matter of fact cause different types of cancer. Therefore, before underwriting is made, insurers may look at these risk factors closely. Also, the applicant's actual medical and hierarchical medical history can be questioned. If any hereditary critical illness, for example heart attack had existed in the family, the procedure of having the critical illness cover may become lengthy.

Moreover, standalone critical illness policies made less impact on the insurance market. Sales of around 18 percent may have been recorded during the year 1997. Out of this, around 50 percent may have been riders to term insurance while the remaining percentage may have turned out to be as riders of whole life. The average sum insured may have been GBP 48,000 on term insurance and GBP 64,000 on whole life insurance. The average monthly premium payment may have been GBP 370 and GBP 380 for each rider type.

Additionally, with critical illness cover there had been evolution concerning the medical endorsement. Experience with life and disability insurance may only be of minimum use. Because when assessing the different risks, the single cause of death and disability may stem from critical illness. Health insurers cover specific diseases but if compared to critical illness insurers, their experience may differ.

However, critical illness cover may have taken two different forms. The accelerated critical illness cover and the standalone critical illness cover. Results showed that around 82 percent of covers may have been accelerated covers. There are different accelerated cover schemes. So, out of the total value mentioned above, 40 percent may have been term insurance, 12 percent may have been whole life and 48 percent may have been endowments. The average sum insured on each type of policy may have been, GBP 47,000 on term insurance, GBP 68,000 on whole life and GBP 35,000 on endowments.

Looking at these statistics and facts, one could be tempted towards taking out a critical illness cover. Nowadays, there may have been vast improvements in the medical field but incidence rates concerning critical illness conditions may have not stopped. So, it could be a good idea buying critical illness cover for future protection.