Life Insurance With Flat Feet, Bunions Or Hammer Toes
These three get grouped because they are all about shape rather than illness.
A great many people have flat feet and will never think about them. Bunions and hammer toes are common and often managed with footwear alone.
What makes any of them a meaningful entry is an operation, and that is mostly what this page is about.
The short answer
Flat feet, bunions and hammer toes are differences in the structure of the foot rather than diseases that progress through the body. Many people have them and need nothing done. The entry that matters on an application is surgery, because foot and toe operations involve a real recovery period and are a clear event with a date.
What it is
Flat feet, or pes planus, is a low or absent arch. It is often lifelong and painless, though it can contribute to foot, ankle and knee pain and is sometimes managed with insoles.
A bunion, or hallux valgus, is a deviation of the big toe with a bony prominence at its base. A hammer toe is a toe bent at the middle joint. Both are often managed with wider footwear, padding and insoles, and both can be corrected surgically if they are painful enough.
Why it comes up on an application
- They are structural, so there is no progression to describe and no severity grading that would mean anything on a form.
- Surgery is the substantive entry. Bunion correction involves cutting and realigning bone, with a recovery commonly measured in weeks to months, and that is an operation with a date.
- Insoles and orthotics are worth mentioning because a podiatrist or orthotist was involved, which is a clinician.
- Where foot shape has contributed to knee, hip or back pain, that other problem is usually the bigger entry.
- If you work on your feet, the practical relevance is time off around any surgery rather than the condition itself.
What we would ask you
- Which you have, and whether it causes pain
- Whether you have had surgery, on which foot, and roughly when
- Whether you use prescribed insoles or see a podiatrist
- Whether it has contributed to any knee, hip or back problem
- Whether it has ever affected your work
- 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
Surgery Is The Entry, Not The Shape
Nothing about having a flat arch is medically interesting on an application. An operation on your foot is.
Bunion correction is real surgery: bone is cut and realigned, often with screws or wires, and the recovery involves a period of restricted weight-bearing commonly measured in weeks and a return to normal footwear measured in months. Hammer toe correction is smaller but is still an operation.
So if you have had any of it, lead with the operation, which foot, and roughly when. That is the useful answer. Describing yourself as having bunions when what you actually have is a surgically corrected foot is less accurate and less complete.
What It Has Done Further Up
This is the part worth a thought if your feet have ever been blamed for something else.
Foot shape changes how load travels up the leg, and flat feet in particular are sometimes identified as contributing to knee, hip or lower back pain. If that has been part of your story, the knee or back problem is almost always the more substantial entry of the two.
So answer the foot question briefly and then answer the knee or back question properly. An application that mentions flat feet and omits years of knee pain has the emphasis exactly the wrong way round.
Which cover is relevant
The practical one if you work on your feet. Bunion surgery means weeks of restricted weight-bearing, which for a trade or a retail job is time off rather than an inconvenience.
The usual starting point for protection generally, and foot shape is rarely a factor in what is available.
Pays on diagnosis of a listed serious condition, and none of these is one, though some policies cover specified surgery. Read the definitions.
Common questions
Do I need to declare flat feet?+
Answer what you are asked. Flat feet alone are a structural difference rather than an illness and are rarely the interesting part of an application. If you use prescribed insoles or see a podiatrist, that is worth saying because a clinician is involved.
I had bunion surgery. How should I describe it?+
As an operation, with which foot and roughly when. Bunion correction involves cutting and realigning bone with a recovery measured in weeks to months, and that is the substantive entry rather than the bunion.
Will bunions affect my life insurance?+
Rarely the deciding factor, and in any case the decision rests on your whole picture and belongs to the insurer. Surgery and recovery are the parts more likely to feature.
I am having surgery soon. What do I put?+
Say that you are waiting for it. Whether you are waiting on tests, appointments or treatment is a direct question on most applications, and planned surgery is a different position from surgery you have had.
My flat feet caused knee pain. Which do I declare?+
Both, and give the knee the proper answer. A knee problem with its own history of pain, imaging or treatment is almost always the more substantial entry, and the feet are the explanation rather than the condition.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.