Bell’s Palsy & Life Insurance

We know that may people with Bell’s Palsy will make a full recovery in a short period of time. For most, the condition never recurs again and has no impact on their long term health or lifespan.

Despite that, this is a condition that can make your life insurance application a little bit more complicated. That’s where we come in, helping people that have experienced Bell’s Palsy to secure the most appropriate life insurance policy.

To help you, we are going to need to ask:

• When were you diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy?
• Was this a one-off event?
• Have you fully recovered?
• Are you in good health overall?

If you’re one of the majority of people with the condition, who have made a full and swift recovery with no recurrence, it is common to find standard terms policies available for you.

It’s uncommon for people to have a recurrence of Bell’s Palsy, but if you have had a recurrence, it could mean that the insurer will want to look at your application more closely. This is the same if your condition persisted for longer than usual.

In these cases it might be that life insurance is offered at non-standard terms. This is usually in the form of a higher premium. We know this may not sound ideal, but it doesn’t necessarily mean silly amounts of money, it’s still worth asking and finding out.

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.

As with life insurance applications, critical illness cover applications will also require information about your day to day health, when you had Bell’s Palsy, how long it lasted and whether or not you have ever experienced a recurrence of the condition.

It’s not uncommon at all, for an insurer to request a report from a GP, to build a picture of your general health. This is only done with your expressed permission for the insurer to do so and you can request to see the report before it goes back to the insurer.

With critical illness cover, the acceptance criteria for the policy can be a little stricter. But if you’ve only experienced the condition once and made a full recovery, standard terms could well be available to you.

We’ll do our best to take as much of the hassle out of the application process as possible for you, leaving you to get on with living your life, while we sort out all the technical bits.

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

When people who have had Bell’s Palsy apply for income protection cover, the insurer needs an overall picture of your general health, information about the extent to which the condition affected you, any lasting complications that you and whether you have any secondary conditions.

As with any other application for income protection cover the insurer is particularly interested in the amount of time you may have had off work as a result of the condition.

There should be a reasonably wide availability of cover, unless you have had multiple recurrences of the condition, requiring lengthy periods of time off work. At this point we may need to look at some more specialist advice for your needs.

If you’re planning any overseas travel, we can help you to find the best travel insurance policy taking into account your history of Bell’s Palsy here.