Life Insurance with Pre-existing Medical Conditions
You can find affordable life insurance if you have a pre-existing medical condition. If you’ve been putting off shopping for insurance because you’re concerned if you’ll get acceptance or whether you’d be able to afford it due to your health concerns, follow the below 7 steps to guide you toward finding cover that meets your requirements and budget.
Published July 20, 2022
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- Definition of a pre-existing condition
- How to get life insurance when you have a pre-existing condition?
- Step 1: Speaking to our specialists
- Step 2: Request a pre-assessment
- Step 3: Outcome of Pre-assessment
- Step 4: Formal lodgment of application to a life insurance company
- Step 5: Providing further information
- Step 6: Underwriting
- Step 7: Outcome from the insurer
It is not uncommon to have had a pre-existing medical condition, but it doesn’t alleviate the need for you to protect your family. Here we help those with pre-existing medical conditions, including illness, injury, or disease, to protect their family.
Definition of a pre-existing condition
A pre-existing medical condition is a condition which you are currently receiving treatment for or you have been diagnosed within the past by a medical practitioner/professional.
An example of pre-existing condition may be:
- Diabetes
- High Blood Pressure
- Asthma
- High BMI
- Heart disease
- Any other conditions diagnosed by a medical practitioner/professional
How to get life insurance when you have a pre-existing condition?
If you have a pre-existing medical condition, there may be a number of steps you need to follow, including:
Step 1: Speaking to our specialists
Generally, the first step to getting insurance coverage is to fully disclose to our specialists any pre-existing medical conditions. This includes a FULL medical history from the time of your birth.
Not only is it a legal and essential requirement to disclose any pre-existing medical condition, it also allows our specialists to find the most appropriate cover for your requirements. By not disclosing, you are not giving them every opportunity to find you an insurer who will cover you.
Please note that technically they will only need to know all pre-existing medical conditions which would reasonably affect the insurer’s decision to provide cover. However, the more details you disclose the better. To be safe, if you are unsure whether a previous medical condition is relevant, ask our specialists.
Generally, you will need to provide your full and complete medical file history if available. If that is unavailable, you will need to provide answers to the following questions around your relevant previous medical conditions:
- Your diagnosed condition
- The severity of your condition
- Who you have consulted regarding the condition
- The date of diagnosis
- Your treatment to date
- The outcome of the treatment
- The current status of your condition
Step 2: Request a pre-assessment
If your medical history is complicated, ask our specialists to complete an anonymous pre-assessment around your specific medical history. They will then submit the anonymous enquiry to a number of life insurance companies sto establish what their view is around your particular medical history.
Benefits of Doing a Pre-assessment vs a Formal Application
A pre-assessment is an informal way to find out how an insurer might rate / view your risk, without it influencing your insurance history. It gives you the advantage of assessing your risk discreetly, so you are more prepared when applying formally. You can turn risk into value by getting that extra edge when choosing and selecting an insurer.
Such an assessment is generally done by people who:
- Have a pre-existing medical condition
- Participate in a dangerous occupation or pastime
- Has a particular or unusual financial situation
These people don’t want to be penalised because of their unique situation. So, instead of formally applying for insurance at the start, they make use of a pre-assessment to glean what their premiums or offer from an insurer might be. The assessment is predominantly completed anonymously and generally won’t affect your insurance history. However, the results of your pre-assessment should never be a reason to leave out pertinent information when you formally apply. It is essential that you fully disclose to the insurer your entire situation when applying formally.
The following will help you make the most of your pre-assessment:
- The more detailed, accurate and complete the information you provide, the more precise the pre assessment results will be. It gives you valid insight into your formal application, should you apply for one. Therefore, it’s important that you provide as much information as possible during the pre-assessment stage.
- A Pre assessment is not binding to an insurer. While it is a great way to get insight into their views, it doesn’t mean they have to honour it. That being said, in our experience, we have found that if you provide honest, detailed information from the start, then generally the insurers’ final assessment will be more consistent with their original pre-assessment.
General Information you can expect to provide in your pre-assessment, include:
- Date of birth
- Height
- Weight
- Smoking and drinking habits
- Your health history
- Your current health
- Your family’s health history
- Your annual income
- Pastimes
If you’re looking for an insurance policy and you suspect you might be a higher risk than a standard adult, then add additional information to your pre-assessment. You can and should use our expertise to see if we can help you find an affordable policy that provides you with adequate coverage / terms that meet your requirements. We’ve compiled a list of information we recommend you attach, if applicable:
If you have a complex medical history:
- The medical condition you’ve been diagnosed with
- The date of diagnoses
- Treatment and medications
- Results
- The contact details of the doctor treating you
When your occupation could be perceived as dangerous:
- Title
- Duties
- Hours work per week
- Income
- Education
- Location
When you partake in dangerous past times:
- The type of activity
- Hours spent participating in said activity
- Qualification and license
- Locations
- Activity specific information. For example, the type of vehicle you race with, the depth you dive to and the heights you jump of off
Financials, if you’re self-employed and want to apply for income protection insurance:
- Business profits and loss statements for the last 2 years
- Business balance sheet for the last 2 years
- Your income (group certificate)
- Tax assessment notice
- Tax return (personal)
- Income splitting (spouse)
*Note: Remember to black-out your name in the copies you send with your pre-assessment.
It’s important to know that not all insurers’ view pre-existing conditions the same. If you want the best possible premiums, you need to shop around and send them your pre-assessment.
Step 3: Outcome of Pre-assessment
Following the outcome of your pre-assessment, you can then make a decision on whether or not you wish to formally apply for a life insurance policy and who would be the first insurer to approach.
Step 4: Formal lodgment of application to a life insurance company
Once you decide to proceed with an application, our specialists will formally lodge the above information to the life insurer who provided the best available terms based on the pre-assessment. The formal application will involve providing the insurer with the above medical information as well as a number of other personal details as per a normal full application.
Step 5: Providing further information
Once the relevant life insurance company has received your application, including details of your pre-existing medical history, they may request additional information and may require you to:
- Obtain further information from your doctor (you will need to sign a medical authority form to allow the insurer to access your files); and/or
- Undergo a medical examination; and/or
- Undergo further blood tests; and/or
- Undergo additional medical tests
Step 6: Underwriting
When your life insurance company believes they have all the relevant information, including your pre-existing medical history, medical files and results from any other additional tests, your application will be assessed and go through a process called underwriting, where your life insurer will assess your risk to the company.
Step 7: Outcome from the insurer
Once this process is completed, the company will generally decide one of the following:
- Accept you at standard rates; or
- Apply a loading to your policy; or
- Apply an exclusion to your policy; or
- Decline your application
If you are not happy with the outcome the insurer has provided, it is important to ask the life company or our specialists when the outcome is reviewable or you should possibly consider other insurers.
However it is important to know that life companies may hold very similar views on certain medical conditions.
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