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Our Toronto critical illness lawyers note that the payment is with “no strings attached” and can be spent however the recipient would like without oversight. It’s generally thought of as a big fat emergency fund to protect you from having to dip into savings or retirements monies to pay for illness-related expenses.
Verkhovets Law, Toronto critical illness lawyers, have seen estimates that most Canadians live paycheque-to-paycheque so a critical illness without this benefit can be devastating, especially since the average age women make a claim is 49, while it’s 54 for men – prime time.
Some of the ways recipients use the payment include:
Verkhovets Law, Toronto critical illness lawyers, know that it’s becoming more likely that if you are diagnosed with a critical illness, you will recover. Your bank account, on the other hand, could be on life support by then because you haven’t been able to work. Having to pay out-of-pocket for a critical illness, even when you have insurance, can derail your retirement plans, too.
The Toronto critical illness lawyers at Verkhovets Law have seen how prevalent the four main covered critical illness conditions are in Canada. The numbers are sobering:
Verkhovets Law, Toronto critical illness insurance lawyers, explain that the list of illnesses and diseases can vary between insurance companies, but there are many in common. Payment is triggered by diagnoses of one of the serious illnesses on the schedule, which may include:
The Toronto critical illness lawyers of Verkhovets Law understand you’ve paid your critical illness insurance premiums faithfully for years. You felt safe all that time because you believed the insurer’s marketing slogan that they were your invisible suit of armour. Instead, in your time of need, they’ve left you without coverage by denying your claim. Why? Probably because you have fallen into one of the snares that are often tucked inside these policies.
Verkhovets Law, Toronto critical illness lawyers, know the most common reason insurers use to deny paying the claim is that the illness doesn’t fall within the specific definition in the policy. For example, you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, and your plan lists the illness as covered. But what gets missed is that the insurer limits payment based on the type of illness and description – they’ll cover in full for spreading cancer, but may deny altogether for a slow-moving disease or one that isn’t life-threatening. And you thought it was just for cancer, period.
Our Toronto critical illness lawyers
also handle these types of claims:
Our Toronto critical illness lawyers also handle these types of claims:
And our Toronto critical illness lawyers
will help you with these types of
personal injuries:
And our Toronto critical illness lawyers will help you with these types of personal injuries:
Broken bones
Concussions
Internal injuries
Soft tissue injuries
Whiplash
Verkhovets Law, Toronto critical illness lawyers, understand the fear and frustration of dealing with a terrifying, serious illness and receiving an intimidating letter from your insurer denying the critical illness insurance payment you thought you were getting. When this happens, we can step in and appeal the decision and if necessary, sue the insurer while you focus on your health.
Our Toronto critical illness lawyers follow strategies for appealing critical illness payment denials, including those based on a finding that an answer on the original form if it’s inaccurate. Depending upon the circumstances, we would argue the questions on the original application were vague, and you misunderstood their meaning. Or it could be there was miscommunication with the salesperson.
If your answers are accurate, but the insurer is misreading your medical history, it might be just an error that can be fixed.
But if it’s being done manipulatively to deny your critical illness claim, we would argue they’re acting in bad faith (intentional dishonesty by not fulfilling contractual obligations).
The Toronto critical illness lawyers at Verkhovets Law have seen the courts take on bad faith behaviour with respect to how some insurers handle claims. Under common law rules in Canada, insurance contracts create an obligation for both sides to treat each other in “utmost good faith.” The Supreme Court of Canada in the case Bhasin v. Harynew, 2014, set out the concept of good faith in insurance contracts, which means there are hard-and-fast rules that insurers should know.
Our Toronto critical illness lawyers note that a civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of Justice against the insurer may also include a claim for damages for bad faith, which are on top of the original policy claim.