Insurers have been urged to create income protection (IP) solutions for people who have suffered heart conditions.
This is the call from Andrew Wilkinson, director at Moneysworth Life Insurance, who spoke to Health & Protection about improving cover for people with such conditions this World Heart Day.
Wilkinson (pictured) described Royal London chief underwriter Craig Paterson’s comments about the need to develop cover for people who have suffered cancer or heart disease as a definite signal that change was on its way.
He added that while there was a significant minority of people within the working population of the country who have a health condition, people with heart conditions are blocked by insurers from accessing IP.
“I would hope that as an industry that we could set the bar a bit higher than that and actually have some sort of benefit that relates to the heart condition itself in some circumstances,” Wilkinson said.
“I think heart attacks range from being relatively mild to being very incapacitating.
“But for many people after they have had a heart attack, they’ve had treatment, they might only have an annual review with a cardiologist from then on.
“We know from talking to people that come to us for life insurance that many report feeling the best they have for years once their condition is diagnosed and treated, because they try and take care of their health after the event.”
Industry must remain relevant
According to Wilkinson, the problem created by this group of people not being able to access IP cover has been growing for years.
“I don’t think product providers have deliberately targeted people to say ‘no, you can’t have cover’ I actually think it’s happened organically,” he continued.
“It’s just what the rules always were but society has moved on and changed and we have many, many more people working with a long term health condition whereas maybe years ago that number would be smaller.
“For the industry to be relevant, it has to provide cover for these people.”