New conditions have been added to Vitality Life's Serious Illness cover with existing definitions enhanced and the structure of the offering simplified.
Vitality Life has expanded the number of severity levels to extend the coverage of primary cover.
This means more than 35 new definitions will be added to primary cover such as borderline ovarian cancer and blindness in one eye.
Many of these 35 definitions are unique and only covered by Vitality Life.
This means customers with primary cover will now be able to claim for more illnesses than ever before.
Comprehensive cover already covers a wide range of conditions but going forward it will also automatically include cancer relapse benefit.
Cancer relapse benefit pays out on all subsequent cancer claims but also boosts the pay out on subsequent cancer claims by 50 per cent.
According to Vitality Life, this not only simplifies comprehensive cover but also means customers will receive unique coverage for the recurrence of cancer at no additional cost.
A total of 13 existing definitions spanning various areas in the body have been enhanced to ensure coverage is as extensive and relevant to customers as possible.
These include definitions such as skin cancer and lumpectomy for carcinoma in situ of the breast, which increases the likelihood of a pay-out.
In addition, a number of definitions such as lumpectomy for carcinoma in situ of the breast and keyhole coronary artery bypass surgery have also had an increase in their severity category, meaning an increase in the pay-out amount.
With these improvements, Vitality Life has simplified its offering and now covers 145 conditions under primary cover and 178 under comprehensive cover.
Tom Conner, director at Drewberry, said: "Vitality is known for having very comprehensive coverage and these new definitions and enhancements make the proposition stronger still for both their primary and comprehensive levels of cover.
"The addition of cancer relapse benefit as standard on comprehensive policies is also positive as cancer is one of the conditions at the forefront of people’s minds when they buy this kind of policy.
"If these changes help to simplify the product that is a move to be welcomed."
emma.hughes@ft.com
