Life Insurance With Asthma, COPD and Lung Conditions

Insurers Are Pricing The Risk Of A Severe Attack, Not The Inhaler

Having asthma on your GP record is not, by itself, what an underwriter is worried about. Many people use a reliever inhaler a few times a year and live entirely normal lives. What an insurer is trying to estimate is how likely you are to have an attack severe enough to put you in hospital, and how well the condition is kept in check between those moments.

That is why the questions focus on evidence of control rather than the diagnosis: how often you need your reliever, whether you take a preventer, how many courses of oral steroids you have needed, and whether you have ever been admitted. Two people with "asthma" on their records can be at opposite ends of that scale, and they will be underwritten that way.

Asthma: Mild And Well Controlled Is Often Standard Rates

For most applicants with asthma, life cover is straightforward. Asthma managed with a reliever, or a reliever and a regular preventer, with no admissions and no more than an occasional steroid course, is often accepted at standard rates.

The answer starts to move when the evidence points to more severe disease:

• several courses of oral steroids (such as prednisolone) in the last year
• a hospital admission, especially a recent one or one involving intensive care
• regular time off work because of your chest
• high-dose or add-on treatment, or a referral to a specialist asthma clinic
• asthma combined with current smoking

None of these means cover is unavailable. They mean the premium may be increased, and that which insurer you apply to matters more, because their guidance for severe asthma differs.

Bronchitis: Acute And Chronic Are Different Questions

Acute bronchitis is a chest infection that clears up, usually within a few weeks. A past episode that resolved fully rarely affects terms, though it should be declared if the form asks about chest infections in the period it covers. If you are still unwell or awaiting a follow-up X-ray, wait until that is resolved before applying.

Chronic bronchitis is a long-term cough with phlegm on most days for months at a time, and it is generally classed as a form of COPD. Insurers will usually treat it under their COPD guidance rather than as a one-off infection, so describe it the way your GP has recorded it.

COPD And Emphysema: Lung Function And Smoking Drive The Outcome

COPD is a progressive condition, which is why insurers approach it more cautiously than asthma. They are pricing not only how you are now, but how the condition is likely to develop over the term of the policy. Cover is often still available, particularly where the disease is mild and stable.

Expect to be asked for, or for the insurer to request from your GP, your spirometry results (FEV1 is the figure most often used), how breathless you get on exertion, how many flare-ups and admissions you have had, whether you use home oxygen, and whether you still smoke. Home oxygen or severe breathlessness usually means a much more limited choice of insurer.

Smoking status is often the single biggest lever. Someone with mild COPD who stopped smoking several years ago is a considerably better application than someone with the same readings who still smokes, partly because smoker rates apply and partly because continued smoking is the main driver of COPD getting worse. Most insurers count vaping and nicotine replacement as smoking too.

Pneumonia: A One-Off Rarely Matters, A Pattern Does

A single bout of pneumonia from which you made a full recovery is usually a footnote on the application. It should be declared where the questions cover it, but on its own it rarely changes the terms.

Repeated pneumonia is treated differently, because an underwriter will want to know why it keeps happening. Recurrent infections can be linked to an underlying lung condition, a problem with the immune system, or treatment that suppresses it. If you have had more than one episode, expect questions about investigations and their results, and be ready to say what, if anything, was found.

Critical Illness And Income Protection Are Where Exclusions Appear

Critical illness cover is often available on standard terms with well-controlled asthma, because asthma itself is not a condition these policies pay out on. COPD is more complicated: many policies include severe lung disease among their claimable conditions, and an insurer may exclude it for someone already diagnosed. If you smoke, the heart attack, stroke and cancer parts of the policy are also priced accordingly.

Income protection pays when you cannot work, so time off is the key question. If your chest has kept you off work in recent years, an exclusion for respiratory conditions is common, which would stop a claim caused by your asthma or COPD. Your job also counts: work around dust, flour, wood, fumes or chemicals can make an insurer more cautious. Some insurers will review an exclusion after a period with no symptoms or absence, so it is worth asking at the outset, and a longer deferred period can sometimes make terms easier.

The Mistakes That Cost People Cover

The most damaging one is playing the condition down. Under UK law you have a duty to take reasonable care to answer the questions honestly and fully. If an insurer later finds that an answer was wrong, for example that steroid courses or an admission were left out, it can reduce or refuse a claim, or cancel the policy, depending on how careless the mistake was. The GP report will usually show your prescriptions, so accurate answers are both the right thing and the practical thing.

• Do not apply in the middle of a flare-up or while waiting for test results; a postponement is likely.
• Do not describe vaping or occasional cigarettes as non-smoking; it is the answer most often checked.
• Do not apply to several insurers directly in quick succession; a decline from one can be asked about by the next.

Why A Specialist Broker Helps With Lung Conditions

For mild asthma, most insurers will reach a similar answer. For severe asthma, COPD, bronchiectasis, sarcoidosis or recurrent infections, they do not. Insurers set their own guidance for respiratory conditions, and the same lung function result or admission history can be read quite differently from one to the next. We can describe your circumstances to insurers before a formal application, which helps you avoid a decline from an insurer that was never likely to offer good terms. If you have other conditions too, our pre-existing conditions guide explains how insurers look at the whole picture.