Critical conversations

_{March 2025}

A series of conversations about the benefits and complexities of Critical Illness insurance

At Munich Re, we're committed to supporting the success of insurance carriers and helping them serve the evolving needs of Canadians. Through this discussion series, we'll tackle some of the key questions and challenges our clients face, with the goal of collaborating as an industry to develop Critical Illness (CI) insurance products that meet the needs of Canadians while ensuring long-term sustainability for insurers and reinsurers.

Chapter 2: Critical Illness benchmark definitions

In this video, Munich Re, Canada (Life) experts Dr. Tim Meagher and Carrie Lam discuss the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) critical illness (CI) insurance benchmark definitions, initially defined in 2008. Intended to create consistency and transparency around eligible conditions for CI payments, they differ from clinical definitions used by medical practitioners. One challenge this poses is that medical diagnoses can involve probabilities or grey zones, but CI policies require precision since claims adhere to contract wording and exclusions. Another is staying in sync with medical advancements, prompting definition updates in 2013, 2018, and most recently in December 2024.