National Heart Month 2022

National Heart Month 2022

National Heart Month runs in the February of each year, and is in place to encourage the nation to take more steps towards a healthier heart.

Within the UK, there are around 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases, and 1 in 2 of us will experience a heart or circulatory condition during our lifetime.

Making even minor changes to your lifestyle or daily routine really can make a big difference and prevent the development of conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or vascular dementia (Bisby, 2022).

How can I make a difference?

The points that I make below are things that you will have read everywhere. Exercise and eat right. It might feel like it’s just the same old same old, but doing these things can have a huge influence on your insurance. Some insurances include options to earn financial rewards for people that choose healthy lifestyles and it really can work out to be good for both you and your pocket.

Get moving

Exercising plays a big role in your overall health and can actually prevent quite a few different things, including reducing the risk of heart and circulatory disease by up to 35%. People’s ability varies massively so it’s down to each person to decide how much they want to do, but even 20 minutes a day can help. Whether it’s a peaceful walk or an exciting zumba class, it all counts. 

Track your numbers

Your blood pressure is a big tell tale sign of your heart health, and keeping track of this can prove beneficial. If you’re concerned about your blood pressure or would like to have it checked, you can often have this done by your GP or at your local pharmacy. 

There are a few things which contribute towards a high blood pressure, such as being overweight, not doing enough exercise and drinking too much alcohol. With 28% of adults in the UK having a high blood pressure, it’s definitely an area that we need to focus on as a society.

Have a balanced diet

Having a balanced diet can help you keep to a healthy weight as well as reduce your risk of diabetes and high blood pressure. If you already have a heart condition, eating healthy can still be beneficial, possibly even more so. 

For a balanced diet, try to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, pulses, seeds, nuts and whole grain varieties of breads and pastas. Eating food which is low in saturated salt, sugar and fat is also better for your body and overall health. 

There are many different places where you can find healthy recipes which will include a number of health ingredients, such as the NHS Healthier Families.

Access to insurance

Having a heart condition can sometimes leave people wondering how this might change their options when it comes to protection insurance. Knowing where to start can sometimes be the trickiest bit, what insurer should you use? What type of protection do you need? How much cover should you get?

Life insurance

If you’re applying for life insurance then the insurer is going to be really interested in any health conditions you may have that could affect your heart. They will want to know what heart condition you have, the symptoms you experience, what treatments you have and what medication you take.

If you have quite a mild heart condition such as mild arrhythmia, it could be that insurers might offer you life insurance with normal terms (no price increase). If your condition is something that the insurer might see as being higher risk, you might be offered insurance at non-standard terms, which means there could be a price increase. This can include conditions like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Marfan’s or experiencing a heart attack.

To go alongside your application the insurer will request a medical report from your GP. This is quite common for a wide range of conditions and is paid for by the insurer, please don’t be alarmed if they ask for this. In fact, we think it’s quite a good thing as the insurer then has a clear picture of your health.

Critical illness cover

The application process for critical illness cover will be similar to an application for life insurance though it can be a little bit trickier. The reason behind it being slightly more difficult is that most of these policies pay out for the diagnosis of heart attacks and some other heart related conditions. The insurer will want to look at the likelihood of you developing one of the claimable conditions.

Again if you have a mild heart condition, you could potentially be offered normal terms by the insurer. Something that can be quite difficult is that medical professionals might say that your heart condition is mild or not a concern, but insurers can differ on how they view health conditions especially if there is a higher chance of you making a claim.

Income protection

If your heart condition doesn’t affect your ability to work or any of your regular day to day activities, there are insurers who will sometimes offer you income protection. It could be that an insurer may add an exclusion on the policy, and possibly increase the price too. This basically means that you cannot claim on your policy for anything relating to your heart. 

Whilst this is not positive to share, it is important to be aware that for heart conditions that insurers feel are strong, they will not offer income protection. There are some specialist options that might be available, potentially without exclusions, but the eligibility criteria is quite specific.

Case study

• A woman in her mid 30s came to us needing life insurance to ensure her mortgage could be paid off in the event of her death. She had a drug induced heart attack over 10 years before coming to us. She had a number of tests at the time and was back to work a couple of months later. She now has a life insurance policy covering her for £415,000 for 35 years, with a monthly premium of less than £20.

   

• A man in his early 20s needed life insurance to protect his mortgage. He had been diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia around 5 years before coming to Cura and took medication for this once a day. We arranged a life and critical illness policy covering him for £95,000 for a period of 35 years, with a monthly premium of around £18. We also reviewed his need for income protection and arranged an income protection policy for the next 38 years with a monthly premium of less than £17, the benefit amount for this policy is £12,000 per year paid in monthly instalments.

   

If you have a heart condition and are considering taking out protection insurance, you can get in touch with one of our advisers or request a call back on our website to talk through potential options. Our advisers can recommend a product to suit your needs or just give you some guidance towards the next step.

You can also check out managing director Kathryn’s podcast, on living with a heart condition: WILL EMBED HERE

References

https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2022/february/support-the-bhf-this-heart-month [Accessed 7 Feb. 2022].

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