Desjardins Insurance has launched Health Priorities, a critical illness insurance product that covers all cancers and abolishes the 30-day survival period that the insurer’s former product Harmony required for a cancer diagnosis – a practice common in the industry. Abolishing the survival period for cancer will speed up payment.

"All insurance companies require a survival period of at least 30 days after a diagnosis of cancer," said Nathalie Tremblay, head of life insurance products and living benefits, in an interview with The Insurance and Investment Journal. "We decided to remove it because it is very rare that a person dies less than 30 days after a cancer diagnosis."

Partial benefits for less severe cancers

Diagnoses for non-life threatening cancers will qualify for an advance of the critical illness insurance benefit, which will vary according to the severity of the situation. "We cover all cancers in Canada, an industry first. When a cancer meets criteria defined by the CLHIA, we will pay 100 per cent of the critical illness insurance benefit. For all others, we will advance 30 per cent, 15 per cent or 1 per cent (of the benefit amount), depending on the case."

Cardiovascular diseases

For the coverage of cardiovascular diseases, Desjardins has added more coverage for less severe conditions. "In slightly less severe conditions, all insurers cover angioplasty. We cover other conditions, including aortic aneurysm and the implantation of a defibrillator," she said.