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Pre Existing Medical Conditions |
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We are insurance specialists and our expertise is in helping people who have a pre-existing medical condition find life insurance, critical illness insurance, income protection insurance and travel insurance.
We have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and we know which insurers will consider your application. If there is a choice between insurers, we will help you find the insurer who is willing to offer you cover at the cheapest rate.
Our service to you is FREE – we do not charge you a fee for our work, since if we are able to find you insurance, then the insurance company will pay us a commission. Even if you already have life insurance in place, we may be able to find the same cover for you at a cheaper rate.
If you have an existing illness or medical condition, or if you have had an illness or disease in the past, you may think that you are going to struggle to find insurance.
You may have applied to an insurance company and had your application for insurance declined, turned down or postponed.
Or you may have applied for life insurance, and the insurer has offered you cover but at a higher premium. They may be going to charge you extra (or have “loaded” your premiums) because of your medical history or a pre-existing medical condition. Similarly you may be struggling to find income protection or critical illness cover.
About 1 in 30 people are turned down for life insurance (about 3-4% of all applications), so you are not alone.
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| Each insurance company will have a different view on your medical history. They have clear guidelines, or “underwriting criteria”, against which they judge any life insurance applications they receive. Some insurers may decline your life insurance application simply because it is not an area that they wish to provide cover for. Other insurers specialise in offering cover to people with existing medical conditions, and will be happy to consider you and may be able to offer you cover.
Each insurer will judge an application for insurance against their underwriting criteria, and then may either:
accept the application,
charge an extra premium to reflect additional risk,
postpone cover for a while,
or reject the application completely.
We are specialists in knowing which insurance company is most likely to consider your life insurance application favourably.
Therefore if you have a pre existing medical condition and you think you can’t get life insurance or if you have been declined life insurance … We can help.
We have a proven track record in obtaining insurance for people who have had their life insurance refused or their premiums rated. Please click here for case studies of the type of people we have helped, and click here for testimonials from some of our customers.
We can also help you if you are looking for critical illness insurance, income protection, keyman insurance, mortgage insurance or travel insurance.
Listed below are just some of the main medical conditions and diseases that we can help with. A more comprehensive list of medical conditions and illnesses is included at the end of this page. However even if you cannot see your condition listed, then please do still get in touch as we cannot include them all. We will give you our honest assessment as to whether you will be able to get life insurance.
High body mass index (BMI), overweight or underweight, obesity
Diabetes
Heart disease, heart attack, heart defects or murmurs, angina
Stroke, transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or brain haemorrhage
Depression, stress, suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts, mental illness
Cancer, tumour or leukaemia
Epilepsy, neurological disorders, multiple sclerosis
Muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease, cerebral palsy
Eating disorders, Chronic fatigue, ME
Drug use, previous alcohol abuse, HIV
Blood pressure and raised cholesterol
Please click here for a more comprehensive list of medical conditions, or alternatively, click here to contact us to talk to us about your case.
We may also be able to help you get income protection insurance if you have a pre-existing medical condition. Some income protection insurers will offer cover for impaired lives, and so even if you have had a heart attack, diabetes, cancer or paraplegia, we may still be able to find you cover. In addition, we can also usually offer income protection to people with stress, bad backs, raised cholesterol, or high blood pressure, or if you are overweight with a high body mass index.
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Pre Existing Medical Conditions and Life Insurance FAQs |
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Why have I been turned down or had my life insurance application declined? |
Each insurance company will have clear guidelines against which they judge any life insurance applications they receive. Some insurers will have quite strict guidelines, and so they may not consider an application which another insurer will happily take. Other insurers specialise in certain areas and so if you have been turned down by a number of mainstream insurance companies, we may still be able to get you insurance. We know which is the best insurer to apply to, given your circumstances.
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Why am I being charged more than normal for my life insurance? |
In some cases, an insurance company will charge you an extra premium for your life insurance (sometimes called “loading” your premiums). This is because they feel that your medical history makes you a higher risk than normal, and therefore they will charge you extra to reflect that higher risk, or they may decline your application. However not all life insurance companies may assess your case in the same way, and we may be able to find an insurer who is willing to offer you cheaper cover.
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Is there any insurer who will offer me life insurance? |
Some insurance companies have very strict guidelines on what type of medical conditions they are willing to accept. Other life insurers may have a different view. There are also a number of specialist insurers who may be able to consider your life insurance application, even if the more recognisably named insurers will not. We find out which insurers will consider your application and how much they are likely to charge. Unfortunately there may be times when it is not possible to get life insurance cover, but we will give you our honest assessment of your case and whether this may change in the future.
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What can I do to find out why I’ve been declined for life insurance? |
If you are unclear as to why the life insurance company has turned you down, then please talk to us. It may be that we are able to identify the reason from what you tell us of your medical history, your family’s medical history, and also which insurance company you have applied to.
There are also two other things which you can usefully do to identify the reason why your life insurance application has been declined or if you have had your life cover postponed.
Firstly, the insurance company to whom you originally applied will, if requested, send your doctor a letter explaining their “reasons why”. Therefore the first step is to ring the insurer, and ask them to send the Reasons Why letter to your GP. Then book an appointment with your doctor (giving time for the letter to arrive), to discuss what the insurer’s letter says. You can also ask your doctor about what is in your medical history that is causing the insurer concern.
Secondly, request a copy of the report that your GP sent to the insurer. Under the Access to Medical Reports Act, you are allowed to see what your GP has written about you. Some surgeries may charge a small fee for this, but if you are at all uncertain about the reasons why your life insurance has been declined or postponed, then a copy of your GP’s report is invaluable.
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Why am I classed as a Special Risk for life insurance? |
Special Risk groups for insurance purposes are people who, because of an existing or previous medical condition, may not be able to get “standard” life insurance. They are also sometimes referred to as “Non-standard Risks”.
A life insurance company may either charge you an extra premium, or they may decline your life insurance application completely. There are however specialist insurance companies who focus on Special Risk insurance, and so please talk to us and we will help you find an insurer who may be willing to take your application.
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Am I allowed to see my doctor’s medical report on me, before it is sent to the life insurance company? |
Yes, you are allowed under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 to see a copy of the report that your GP writes about you. However please bear in mind that if you request to see your medical report before it is sent to the insurer, you will need to contact your GP as soon as possible. This is because your doctor will keep the completed report for 21 days, so that you may see it. If you have not seen it within these 21 days, he will then send it on to the insurance company. Therefore you should contact your GP surgery as soon as possible to avoid delaying the process.
You are also able, under the same Act, to see a copy of the report which has already been sent to an insurer. This is particularly useful if you have been turned down by a life insurance company and are not sure why. The report that your GP sends to the life insurance company will contain all the relevant information on your medical history that they have based their underwriting decision on.
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Do I have to tell the insurers everything on my life insurance application? |
With life insurance, it is essential that you tell the insurance company everything that they ask – answering each question carefully, truthfully and completely. If you are not sure whether to mention something, then mention it. It is better to give the insurer more information and detail than they need, than to omit something which may cause them not to pay out on your policy when you die. Let the insurance company decide what is important and relevant.
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What is underwriting and how does it work? |
The underwriting of a life insurance policy is the process by which the life insurance company decides whether you meet their criteria, whether they are prepared to insure you, and if so, how much they are going to charge you.
Each life insurance company will have strict levels against which they will assess you, for example your height to weight ratio. An underwriter will check your medical and personal history against these criteria, and then will decide what premium they are going to charge you. There will be a standard non-smoker and a standard smoker rate, but the insurance company may “rate” your premium, or charge you extra, because of your health or because you may take part in a dangerous hobby or pastime.
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Why do smokers get charged more for life insurance than non-smokers? |
Life insurance companies will class you as a smoker if you have used any tobacco products in the last 12 months. The amount that you are charged for your life insurance is based on how long the insurer thinks you will live, and therefore how likely you are to claim on the policy. There are a number of factors which determine how long you are likely to live, and these include your age, your sex, your medical history and whether you smoke. As smoking can reduce your life expectancy, the insurance company will charge a smoker more than they will someone who doesn’t smoke.
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What does Utmost Good Faith mean in life insurance terms? |
Utmost Good Faith in life insurance means that you are required to be completely honest when applying for life insurance and disclose all relevant personal and medical information, including any previous health problems you have had. Unless you are completely truthful in your life insurance application, there will be a risk that your life insurance company will not pay out when a claim is made against the policy. Don’t risk it – tell them everything.
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