Life Insurance With Acid Reflux Or GORD
Almost everybody has had indigestion. Far fewer have a diagnosis, and the difference between those two situations is what this page is about.
Reflux becomes a meaningful entry in a medical history when it is persistent enough to be treated continuously, or when it has been looked at with a camera.
This page covers what we would ask. What any insurer does with it is their decision.
The short answer
Occasional indigestion is barely a medical history at all. Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease is different in two ways that matter on an application: it is usually managed with medication taken for years rather than weeks, and persistent reflux is frequently investigated by endoscopy to look at the lining of the oesophagus. The medication and the investigation are the parts worth having ready.
What it is
Acid reflux is stomach contents moving back up into the oesophagus. When it happens often enough to cause ongoing symptoms or damage, it is usually called gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, or GORD.
It is commonly managed with proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole or lansoprazole, often taken long term, alongside changes to diet, weight, alcohol and the timing of meals. Persistent or alarming symptoms are generally investigated with an endoscopy.
Why it comes up on an application
- Proton pump inhibitors are frequently taken for years, which makes this a continuing prescription rather than a past episode.
- Endoscopy is common in this condition, and an endoscopy is an investigation whatever it found. If you have had one, it belongs in an answer about tests.
- What the endoscopy showed is the part people leave out. Inflammation, an ulcer, or Barrett's oesophagus are all separate findings with their own names, and if any of those were mentioned to you then the finding is the entry rather than the reflux.
- Reflux is sometimes the reason a cardiac problem is ruled out, because chest discomfort gets investigated properly. Any cardiac investigation counts as one even when the conclusion was indigestion.
What we would ask you
- How long you have had symptoms, and whether they are controlled
- What you take for it, and whether you have taken it continuously or on and off
- Whether you have had an endoscopy, and what it showed
- Whether your heart was ever investigated before reflux was settled on
- Whether you are currently off work or working reduced hours because of an accident, injury or illness
- Whether you are waiting on any medical tests, appointments or treatment
- Whether you have been diagnosed with or treated for cancer in the last five years
- Whether a parent, brother or sister was diagnosed with cancer, heart disease or a stroke before 65
- Any medication you take
- Whether you smoke, and your date of birth
What The Camera Found Is The Real Answer
If you have had an endoscopy for reflux, that is the most useful thing you can tell us, and specifically what it showed.
An endoscopy that found nothing is a reassuring and complete answer. One that found oesophagitis, a hiatus hernia, an ulcer or Barrett's oesophagus is a different entry, because those have their own names and their own follow-up. Barrett's in particular involves ongoing surveillance, which is a continuing medical relationship rather than a finished episode.
People summarise all of this as reflux because that is what they went in for. The finding is the part with substance, and if you are not sure what yours was, the report will say.
Years Of Medication Is A Prescription History
Proton pump inhibitors are among the most commonly prescribed medicines in the country, and they are frequently taken for a very long time.
That matters for an application in a straightforward way: a question about medication is asking what you take now and have taken, not whether you consider it important. Ten years of omeprazole is a meaningful answer and takes a line to give.
What any insurer makes of it is their decision and depends on far more than one medicine, which is exactly why we would rather find out for you than guess.
Which cover is relevant
The usual starting point. Where there has been an endoscopy, what it found matters more to the picture than the reflux itself.
Pays on diagnosis of a listed serious condition. Reflux is not one, so read the definitions and arrange it for the risks it does cover.
Replaces earnings if illness or injury stops you working. Reflux rarely does, and the honest answer on a form is usually that it has not.
Common questions
Do I need to declare acid reflux?+
Answer the questions you are asked. If you are asked about ongoing conditions, medication or investigations and reflux applies, then yes. The medication history and any endoscopy are usually the parts with substance in them.
I take omeprazole long term. Does that matter?+
It is worth declaring plainly. A question about medication asks what you take, and years of continuous treatment is a meaningful answer. What it means for your terms is the insurer's decision rather than something we would predict.
I had an endoscopy. What should I say?+
That you had one, and what it showed. A normal result is a complete and useful answer. If it found oesophagitis, a hiatus hernia, an ulcer or Barrett's oesophagus, that finding is the entry rather than the reflux, and the report will tell you which.
What is Barrett's oesophagus and why does it come up?+
It is a change in the lining of the oesophagus that is sometimes found during endoscopy for long-standing reflux, and it is usually followed up with ongoing surveillance. That continuing medical relationship is why it is a separate thing to declare rather than part of a general answer about reflux.
My heart was checked and it turned out to be indigestion. Do I mention it?+
Yes. A question about tests or specialists is asking whether they happened, not only what they concluded. A cardiac investigation that found nothing is a good answer, and leaving it out would make your application incomplete.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.