How Many People Have Critical Illness Insurance? 
Simple Answer : NOT ENOUGH in the US . Critical Illness -LRB- CI -RRB- was first created by a Heart Surgeon in South Africa . The reason as he put it was `` I can heal people medically but the financial stress is killing them '' . CI provides a lump sum of money upon first diagnosis of a covered Critical Illness such as heart attack , stroke , cancer and up to 21 or so other conditions . In the United States , Critical Illness has only been introduced about 8 years ago and now is finally picking up steam with the agents & brokers who can sell this product . The U.S. has to catch up a bit with the rest of the world but I have faith it will in the next few short years . 