Life Insurance After Cervical Cancer

Being diagnosed with cervical cancer is something that often makes people stop and think hard about different parts of their life. There will be the worry over how you and your family will cope and uncertainty over what the future holds.

We want to be able to give you the support that you need, by taking the stress of insurance away.

Things we need to know:

• The staging and grading of the cancer
• When you were diagnosed
• The treatment that you had
• When you last had treatment

When you have had cervical cancer, life insurance (also known as term life insurance) may not be something that you think is going to be available to you. You may think that insurers think that you are too ‘high risk’ to have life insurance cover.

We regularly help people that have had cancer to arrange insurance. There is no one clear insurer that stands out as being a cancer champion, within the insurance world. Your chance of getting life insurance really comes down to your individual circumstances.

Applications for life cover after having had cervical cancer are going to focus on some key details about your health. The life insurance company is going to want to know the staging and grading your cancer was diagnosed at, the treatment schedule that you had and any lasting complications that you experience. Insurers are also really keen on dates.

They also like to know when you were diagnosed, how long your treatment lasted, when you last had treatment and the time since you were given the all clear.

Where the cervical cancer was a low staging/grading and quite a few years have passed, some insurers might be able to offer you life insurance at what is known as normal terms (standard life insurance offer). For cancers that were diagnosed at a higher classification, or where recent treatment has taken place, it’s more likely that insurers will consider offering terms at a higher premium (a non-standard rating).

There are times when insurance companies may choose to postpone your application until a bit more time has passed since you had cancer, before they can offer you life insurance. It is possible that some insurers may decline the application.

This is why we are here to help, to do the research and place you with an insurer, that isn’t going to say no.

Ultimately, the terms that you are offered will depend upon the stage of the cancer, the period of time that has passed and the specific insurers life insurance underwriting rules.

Whilst this is never easy to hear, if you have been declined insurance in the past please do not see this as the end of the road. There are a number of specialist insurers that can be looked at for your life insurance and it is often worth seeing what they have to offer, even if in the end you decide it’s not right for you.

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 applications are going to be applied for in a similar way to life insurance. But, one of the key conditions to claim for with critical illness cover is cancer. Given that you have had cervical cancer in the past, it is something that insurers will probably want to take a little more time to consider.

As with life insurance, applications critical illness cover with most insurers will require the support of documentation from your GP. This may sound a pain, but it is something that we quite like. The report is paid for by the insurer and is a form that asks your GP to clarify and confirm your health history and how your current health is.

The good thing about a GP report supporting your application, is that you can then feel confident that the insurer makes their decision about the insurance based upon your official medical records. That means that there won’t be the worry that you have gotten the name or dates of your treatment wrong.

It is likely that any form of critical illness cover that you are offered will come with a cancer exclusion to the policy, it may also have a premium increase. As with life insurance, some insurers may offer you the policy, some may postpone or decline. But there are options out there that we have access to and we can support you to get past any hurdles along the way.

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

Income protection is a policy that can be arranged in so many different ways, that there can be a number of different routes to try for your cover.

Similarly to above, the insurers are going to want to know the staging/grading of the cervical cancer, treatments, timings and how you are now. For income protection there will also be the question over how much time you have had off work due to the cancer and potentially any other condition that you have.

You might find that having had a low staging/grading cancer a good while ago, will have little impact on your application. You may find that some insurers can consider standard terms for cover.

For people that have had higher staging/grading of cancer, there may be the potential to find income protection with a cancer exclusion and/or a premium increase to the policy.

You may find that the options for income protection for you don’t feel right. Some people are ok with premium increases (ok, not ok, but they understand why it has happened) whilst others simply do not want to pay more for the insurance.

You may find yourself in the situation where your income protection application is postponed and we need to look at alternative routes. This is where our team can really help by researching the market and getting you the cover that you need.

There is the potential to look at something known as Accident, Sickness and Unemployment Cover. This policy will provide short term income protection of between 12-24 months if you are unable to work due to disability, severe illness or are made involuntarily redundant.

The reason that you might want to look at this, is because it is not medically underwritten, so your history of cervical cancer, will not affect the premiums. But, these policies will exclude any claim relating to cancer.

Are you going on holiday? Make sure that you know what your travel insurance covers you for, after your cancer diagnosis. To find out more about arranging travel insurance after cancer, please visit our dedicated page here.