Paraplegia & Life Insurance

We know that having paraplegia does not stop you from having a full and active life.

Yes, you may have to do adapt your home, your work environment and plan your holidays with a bit more detail, but it doesn’t need to hold you back from living.

Here at Cura, it is our job to listen to you, to how you life with paraplegia, and find an insurer that is supportive of your health.

Things we need to know:

• When did you become paraplegic?
• Is your paraplegia complete or partial?
• Have you had surgery?
• Do you have a catheter fitted?
• Do you have any complications e.g. frequent urinary tract infections?
• Do you require a carer?

Life insurance for paraplegics is available with a number of insurers on the standard market. It is likely that the insurer will want to see a report from your GP to confirm the cause of your paraplegia and how you are manage your health on a regular basis.

You will need to detail how long you have had paraplegia, if you have any additional health conditions and how much it affects your day to day living. Sometimes insurers consider your ability to work, as a good indicator of how much paraplegia affects you.

Where life insurance is available, it will probably come at non-standard terms, in the form of a premium increase.

Another potential consideration is your weight. If you have had one or two limbs removed, this can affect your BMI score (your height to weight ratio). If you have had one limb removed your BMI can fall lower than a standard insurers acceptance criteria, if you have had two limbs removed your BMI can fall above the standard acceptance ranges. It is important to explain to insurers the current situation so they have a full picture and therefore assess your application fairly.

If you are in this situation or your paraplegia is causing problems other complications, such as kidneys complications, it is possible that you may need to look at a specialist provider for your Life Insurance.

Critical illness cover pays out a cash lump sum of money, if you are diagnosed with a medical condition that is listed in the insurer’s claims set e.g. cancer, heart attack, stroke.

Critical Illness Cover for paraplegics may be available with some insurance providers. The insurer will be particularly interested in whether the paraplegia is causing any secondary complications. This could be if your renal function is being affected, you have a low or high BMI, if you are paraplegic due to a loss of one or two limbs, and other factors. The reason that the insurer will want to know these details, is because kidney failure and loss of a limb, are claimable conditions under many critical illness contracts. Your circumstances could lead the insurer to exclude these conditions from the policy claims set.

If you find that Critical Illness Cover is not available on the standard market due to your paraplegia, there are specialist insurers that we can arrange the cover with for you.

Income protection pays you a replacement of your monthly income, if you are unable to work due to ill health.

Income Protection for those with paraplegia is usually unavailable with standard insurance providers. There are some specialist income protection policies that you could be able to arrange, but the acceptance criteria is quite strict. It is always worthwhile having a chat to see what is available, even if you decide that it is not right for you.

The Seven Families was a charity-led campaign that helped a number of families by providing income protection support to them. Over a period of 12 months they provided them with the money and support services that they could have had, if they had income protection before they became ill.

Nikki Thornley received help from the Seven Families after she was in a road accident, that stopped her from being able to work as a police officer. They were able to support her in her rehabilitation and plans to get back to work as soon as possible.

You may want to look at Accident, Sickness and Unemployment cover if you are unable to work due to ill health or involuntary redundancy. This type of policy is arranged without any medical underwriting, meaning that you will be accepted for cover without detailing your paraplegia. Accident, Sickness and Unemployment cover provides replacement of your monthly income, for between 12 and 24 months. Whilst the policy is not medically underwritten at the time of the policy being set up, any claims are. This means that any claim that you make will exclude inability to work due to your paraplegia.

Are you going on holiday? It is a good idea to plan ahead and one way of doing this is getting your travel insurance in place. We work alongside a specialist travel insurance broker that can help you find the right insurance for you. For more details please see our dedicated travel insurance page here.