Life Insurance With Short Or Long Sightedness
Most of the country needs some correction and it is not a health history.
This page exists to say so plainly, and to flag the two situations where there is genuinely something to declare.
Neither is a reason for concern. Both are a reason to be accurate.
The short answer
Wearing glasses or contact lenses for ordinary short sightedness, long sightedness or astigmatism is not a medical condition in any meaningful sense and is rarely what an application is reaching for. Two things in this area do carry weight: laser or lens surgery, which is an operation on your eye, and high short sightedness, because a strongly myopic eye carries a higher risk of retinal problems.
What it is
Short sightedness, or myopia, means distant objects are blurred. Long sightedness, hypermetropia, means close objects are harder to focus on. Astigmatism is an uneven curvature of the eye producing blur at all distances. All three are refractive errors: the eye does not focus light precisely on the retina.
They are corrected with glasses or contact lenses, and permanently with surgery, either reshaping the cornea with a laser or implanting a lens. High myopia means a strong prescription, and such eyes are longer than average, which stretches the retina.
Why it comes up on an application
- Ordinary correction with glasses or lenses is not usually a declarable condition, and there is normally nothing in a GP record about it.
- Laser eye surgery or an implanted lens is an operation on the eye with a date, and should be stated as surgery.
- High short sightedness is the medically relevant version, because a strongly myopic eye has a higher risk of retinal detachment and other retinal changes. If you know your prescription is strong, say so.
- Anybody with high myopia who has had flashes, floaters or a shadow in their vision will usually have had an urgent retinal assessment, and that is a real entry.
- Contact lens wearers occasionally have corneal infections or ulcers, which are treated urgently and are separate entries.
- Regular optician checks are not medical appointments in the sense a form means, but anything referred on from one is.
What we would ask you
- Whether you wear glasses or contact lenses, and roughly how strong the prescription is
- Whether you have had laser eye surgery or a lens implant, and when
- Whether you have ever been told you have high myopia or a stretched retina
- Whether you have ever been seen urgently for flashes, floaters or loss of vision
- Whether you have ever had an eye infection or ulcer from contact lenses
- 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
Glasses Are Not A Condition. Surgery Is.
It is worth being direct, because people either over-declare this or miss the one part that counts.
If you wear glasses to drive and that is the whole story, there is very little to say and your GP record probably contains nothing about it. Saying you are short sighted is a fine answer and it will not be the interesting part of your application.
Laser eye surgery is different. It is an elective operation on your eye, performed under local anaesthetic, with follow-up appointments and occasionally complications such as persistent dry eye. If you have had it, name it as surgery with roughly when, because that is a procedure rather than a prescription.
High Myopia Is The Part With Medical Substance
This is the genuinely useful thing on the page and it is not widely understood outside optometry.
A strongly short sighted eye is physically longer than average, which stretches the retina at the back. That raises the risk of retinal problems, detachment among them, and it is why people with high myopia are advised to get sudden flashes, new floaters or a shadow in their vision checked urgently rather than waiting.
So if your prescription is strong, say so, and say whether you have ever been seen urgently for eye symptoms. An urgent eye assessment that found nothing is a complete and reassuring answer, and leaving it out because it was reassuring is the commonest way these applications end up incomplete.
Which cover is relevant
The usual starting point, and ordinary glasses are not a factor. Eye surgery and high myopia sit in the picture instead.
Pays on diagnosis of a listed serious condition, and many policies list total permanent loss of sight. Needing glasses is nowhere near that, but it makes the definitions worth reading.
Replaces earnings if illness or injury stops you working. Relevant for anybody whose job depends on a vision standard, professional drivers in particular.
Common questions
Do I need to declare wearing glasses?+
Say so if asked, but it is not usually a medical condition in the sense a form means, and there is often nothing in your GP record about it. It will rarely be the interesting part of your application.
I had laser eye surgery. Does that count?+
Yes, name it as surgery with roughly when. It is an elective operation on the eye with follow-up appointments, which is a different thing from a prescription for glasses.
Why does a strong prescription matter?+
Because a strongly short sighted eye is longer than average, which stretches the retina and raises the risk of retinal problems including detachment. It is why people with high myopia are told to get flashes or new floaters checked urgently.
I was seen urgently for flashes and nothing was found. Should I mention it?+
Yes, and it is a reassuring answer. A question about investigations asks whether they happened, and an urgent retinal assessment that found nothing is genuinely useful information rather than something to leave out.
Is poor eyesight covered by critical illness cover?+
Many policies list total and permanent loss of sight, which is an entirely different thing from needing correction. Read the definitions in the specific policy rather than assuming, and we can go through them with you.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.