In a world where we are all asked to be more careful of using terms, which can offend others, it is unfortunate that the insurance industry uses as term like Impaired Lives.
Another name used is Pre-existing Conditions
The historic phrase used to mean that you were such a poor risk that if you could buy insurance at all, then it would be hugely expensive as well as restrictive.
It is estimated that one in five people who require life cover do not fit the “standard” health profile. When a person has medical impairments, the factory-style approach, which works so well on healthy lives, does not deliver. Many large companies are simply not set up to provide a tailored service for impaired lives
With millions of people now living almost normal lives after what would once have been a terminal illness, or living for a long while with a serious problem, then a more mature and complex market has arisen with specialist insurers and specialist brokers.
Unfortunately there are still areas of ignorance and broad exclusions from mainline life insurers.
Many cancer sufferers are being turned down for life cover insurance, putting their homes at risk as well as causing needless distress. The situation is particularly acute for women with breast cancer, who may be overcharged for cover.
Insurance companies are not always taking the impact of new medicines into account. New treatments are increasing survival rates all the time and the companies are not keeping track enough.
Being turned down for cover can be very distressing for cancer sufferers, particularly since they are often asked insensitive questions by call-centre staff. Recently discovered drugs such as Arimidex and Herceptin have dramatically increased survival rates for breast cancer. The estimated five-year survival rate for women diagnosed in England and Wales in 2001-2003 was 80 per cent, compared with 52 per cent for women diagnosed in 1971-1975.
Some insurers will offer cover, but may require people to be clear of the disease for 10 years.
Many insurers routinely turn down breast cancer patients, or offer terms that are not affordable. To a sufferer, this feels like you're being taxed for having breast cancer. The kind of risk assessment currently being applied to breast cancer sufferers is often unsuitable, unsustainable, and unfair. Some people in insurance insist on calling such people' patients' -which is less than subtle.
Insurance companies make a decision on which customers they insure. Some companies do put different conditions on cover. People with pre-existing conditions can find insurance by going through a broker.
Other conditions that often preclude life cover, or make it exorbitantly expensive, include diabetes, depression, testicular cancer and kidney disease.
There are specialist insurers and intermediaries for this type of cover.
