Dr. Marius Barnard, brother of famed South African heart surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard, first recognized the need for a financial cure for his patients stricken with catastrophic health events such as cancer, heart disease or stroke. In most cases these events lead to financial hardship and significant decline in lifestyle and quality of life.

Dr. Barnard recognized with increasing life expectancy after critical illness, it was important to help his patients survive financial hardship as well as their critical illness. He felt strongly that insurance companies should address this problem and offer suitable protections.

Dr. Barnard began promoting his critical illness insurance concept, and in 1983 the first South African insurance company introduced a critical illness product to address the financial protection Dr. Barnard sought.

Following the success of critical illness insurance in South Africa, the concept has been successfully developed in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, and most recently in the United States. While new to the U.S. , critical illness insurance is one of the most widely purchased products in other countries.

Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Barnard, critical illness insurance has become a successful, mainstream insurance product, providing a financial cure for patients with critical illnesses.