CancerBACUP has expressed concern that consumers will remain confused about private medical insurance, despite the ABI's drive to improve selling standards.
The ABI has proposed measures to amend its Statement of Best Practice on the Selling of Private Medical Insurance. While CancerBACUP has welcomed the initiative, the charity remains concerned that confusion will continue over whether individual providers regard cancer as a chronic or acute condition and therefore what they will and will not cover.
CancerBACUP believes that cancer fits neither the acute or chronic definitions as currently described by the insurance
industry.
The charity said it welcomes the ABI's commitment to review the insurance industry's definitions of "chronic" and "acute" in relation to cancer and is also calling on insurers to adopt a definition of "active treatment".
It believes the industry must now adopt a common language in relation to important terms used by individual companies to define what they will and will not cover to ensure the current confusion and distress among PMI consumers is to be properly addressed.
Joanne Rule, chief executive of CancerBACUP, said: "The insurance industry has taken an important step in the right direction with these measures but the potential for confusion and distress amongst consumers about what they are buying in relation to cancer cover remains. To make informed decisions when buying PMI consumers need to know exactly what insurers mean by "acute", "chronic" and "active treatment" in relation to cancer care."
