Do you insure people with diabetes?

We come across this question extremely often and in this article, we will try to give an insight into the way we assess this type of cases.  

The main answer we have is that we do not adjust our regular premiums for new clients in order to include cover for pre-existing medical conditions. When a client discloses some medical conditions on the Full Medical Underwriting Application Form, our underwriters will assess the information and make a decision. Nevertheless, the decision will be simply whether to exclude the particular conditions or to offer standard terms, i.e. with no personal exclusions. We do not have the facility to offer terms for new clients where the premium is higher than our standard rates. In the majority of cases the underwriter would wish to exclude the conditions listed.

It is different when the client’s application is to transfer cover from an existing international medical insurance plan with another insurer. We will summarise what can happen in those cases.

The transfer will be on a ‘CPME’ basis (or ‘continuing personal medical excisions’). The applicant must answer the medical questions in the relevant application form. The answers to those questions are reviewed by our underwriters and there are several possible outcomes, as follows:

• In rare cases we can decline to offer cover
• If the answers to the questions contain nothing to worry the underwriters then we add a loading of +7% to our regular new client’s premiums. This is the transfer loading which is included in the quotes generated by our online quote system when you obtain a transfer quote online from our website.
• If the underwriters feel the medical disclosures present a higher risk of claims, then we usually still offer terms but with a higher CPME loading of +27.5%, which means we will include cover for the disclosed condition.

Sometimes we can also offer the lower transfer loading, but with an exclusion on a particular disclosed medical condition.

• Anyone applying to transfer cover must also meet certain other criteria, which are as follows:
• Their current insurance plan must be with an approved provider (e.g. BUPA, AXA, but not the local insurers I’m afraid).
• There is no break in cover.
• Finally the current policy was underwritten, i.e. moratorium or FMU (Full Medical Underwritting)
• Finally, if any of the pre-existing conditions are also chronic conditions, then cover for the routine maintenance of chronic conditions is only offered by specific premium plans