The exact medical wording a diagnosis must meet before a critical illness claim is paid.
Every critical illness policy lists the conditions it covers, each with a written definition describing how severe or advanced the condition must be for a claim to succeed. Two policies can both list the same condition name while defining it differently, which is why the full wording — not the marketing summary — governs a claim. The Association of British Insurers publishes minimum-standard model wordings that most insurers meet or exceed. A claim that falls short of the definition is declined even where the diagnosis is genuine.