High Blood Pressure & Life Insurance

We understand that high blood pressure is quite a common condition. A lot of the time people have it, without knowing that they do.

For many, having high blood pressure does not have any noticeable affect upon their life.

It may be that all is well and good with a bit of medication, or it could be that it kickstarts a new mindset for healthy eating and exercise.

When it comes to arranging life insurance, having high blood pressure on it’s own, is often quite straightforward. In some cases it may even be possible to get life insurance as soon as you apply.

To help figure out what is going to be available to you, it helps if we can know this information:

• When were you diagnosed with high blood pressure?
• What was your latest reading?
• What medication do you take?
• What is your height and weight?
• Do you have high cholesterol?

Life insurance for people with high blood pressure can be a simple process with many cases now accepted at the point of application. This means no need for medicals or a report from your GP.

The best chance of this happening is if you have your latest readings available to put into the application. If you do not know these, a quick call to your GP should be able to give you the answers that you need.

High blood pressure that is well controlled, usually around 140/80, it’s quite likely that you will be able to get life insurance at normal terms.

If your blood pressure is higher than this, please don’t worry. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the cost of the life insurance has to get silly expensive.

It may be that some insurers will increase the price of the life insurance, if your blood pressure readings are quite high. It’s also possible that this will happen if you have a high BMI, diabetes or any other medical condition.

Life insurance providers often ask a bit about family medical history too. This is so that they can see if there is specific heart conditions that run in your family (known as a cardiovascular risk).

Depending upon your blood pressure readings, your medications and other health conditions that you have, the insurer may ask to see a report from your GP. This is only done with your expressed permission and is typically paid for by the insurer.

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.

Getting critical illness cover when you have high blood pressure can be quite simple to arrange. If your blood pressure is well controlled and you have not other medical conditions, you may be offered critical illness cover at normal terms.

Critical illness cover applications tend to be reviewed by insurers, more strictly than life insurance. High blood pressure is often associated with other conditions like a high BMI and diabetes. If you have another medical condition like these, then it could be that you are offered a higher premium for critical illness cover.

You may need to look at specialist insurers for critical illness cover, if you have a combination of health factors.

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

Income protection for people with high blood pressure can be available with a number of insurers. Well controlled high blood pressure is often not a huge concern to insurers and you could get income protection at standard terms.

When it comes to income protection, insurance providers are keen to know if you have had any extended time off work due to your health. It’s a good idea to have details of any time off work you have taken in the last couple of years, when you apply.

Depending upon your blood pressure readings, some insurance providers may want to a medical report from your GP, before they fully assess your application. But most of the time this won’t be needed.

When you are applying for income protection you ideally want to arrange a policy on an ‘own occupation’ definition. This is the best version of the policy you can get.

Some people may find that income protection isn’t available to them. This is most likely when there are multiple medical conditions. If this is the case, then you may want to consider Accident, Sickness and Unemployment cover.

This type of policy pays a monthly income replacement to you for 12-24 months, if you are unable to work due to ill health or involuntary redundancy. You are not asked about medical conditions when you set the policy up, so your health will not affect your eligibility or the price of the cover.

But it’s really important that you are fully aware that most of these policies will not pay claims relating to pre-existing health conditions.

Going on holiday is meant to be an escape from everyday life, relaxing and fun. The last thing that you want to is to go away and not be sure if your travel insurance is going to do what you want it to.

We have access to a specialist travel insurance broker that can help you. To find out more, please visit our travel page here.