Multiple Sclerosis & Life Insurance
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Multiple Sclerosis & Life Insurance
We know that multiple sclerosis can be a unpredictable illness, you never know when a relapse will occur, or if you are going to develop permanent physical symptoms. We also know that people MS live full lives and we can get you the insurance that you need.
Things we need to know:
- What type of Multiple Sclerosis do you have? eg (relapsing remitting MS, secondary progressive MS or primary progressive MS?)
- When were you diagnosed with multiple sclerosis?
- What are your symptoms?
- When was your last relapse or symptoms?
- What medication do you take?
- How does your MS affect your daily living?
- Do you use any mobility aids?
Individuals with multiple sclerosis should have no apprehension about applying for Life Insurance. If the condition is well controlled and managed then there are some providers who can offer Life Insurance, from an application form alone. You should however be prepared that most providers will want to contact your GP for details as to the extent of your condition. This will not cost you anything and will ensure that the insurance provider offers Life Insurance with a full understanding of your condition.
When you apply for Life Insurance with multiple sclerosis, you should be prepared for your premiums to increase slightly due to your condition. The increase in the premium you will pay will be dependent upon the insurer that you choose, the amount of benefit you require, the term you have chosen, and the severity of your symptoms.
Multiple Sclerosis & Critical Illness Cover
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.
It is possible to get Critical Illness Cover when you have MS, with some insurers. In most circumstances this will only be available with relapsing remitting MS where there have been no relapses for a number of years. The insurer will want to know how the multiple sclerosis affects you on a daily basis, and if you have developed any secondary conditions because of it. It is likely that any offer of Critical Illness Cover that you have will come with a multiple sclerosis exclusion, and possibly a blindness exclusion too. If you have strong and regular MS flare ups, you may need to look at a specialist insurer for your cover.
Multiple Sclerosis & Income Protection
Income protection pays you a replacement of your monthly income, if you are unable to work due to ill health.
There are currently very limited options for people with multiple sclerosis to have Income Protection. We would recommend that you speak with a specialist adviser, who can fully explain the different options that you have for Income protection.
Get an Income Protection Quote
The true value of policies like income protection can often be a bit tricky to understand. It is not just the money that they provide that is valuable. It’s what you can do with that money and also the additional services that they can provide.
The Seven Families, a charity-led campaign, supported people that did not have income protection, to show just how useful it can be. In this video you will see how the money and support services offered by the Seven Families, significantly helped Daniel Pinder when he was diagnosed with MS.
If you find that your circumstances don’t allow you to have Income Protection, you may want to consider Accident, Sickness and Unemployment cover, a form of short-term Income Protection.
This type of policy is arranged without detailing your medical history, so your multiple sclerosis will have no bearing on you being able to have it. An Accident, Sickness and Unemployment policy will pay out a monthly income replacement for between 12-24 months, if you are unable to work due to ill health or redundancy.
It is important to know that whilst your MS is not considered when you arrange the policy, the policy will exclude any claims related to your multiple sclerosis.
Multiple Sclerosis & Travel Insurance
Are you planning a trip abroad? We work alongside a specialist travel insurance broker who can help you find travel insurance when you have MS. For more details please visit our dedicated page here.
Video Transcript
Hi, today I’m carrying on the CuraVision ABC series, and I’m ready to chat to you about Mr M. Mark came to us a 30 year old male, non-smoker, BMI well within the okay range, and now with Mark the issue he had had, was that he had been to a few insurers and had struggled to find anyone who could give him the life insurance, because he had relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. So Mark had come to us wondering if we could help, and we identified he did have a need for life insurance and critical illness cover. He had a capital repayment mortgage of £164,000 over 34 years. So everything was fine, we put our application through to the insurer for his life insurance and critical illness cover, and unfortunately the insurer declined him, and we didn’t really understand why. We spoke to the insurer, we all went backwards and forwards a little bit, and we established that the insurer was classing a recent brain scan that he had, which showed a slight change in his brain activity, as evidence of him having had a recent relapse.
Now, we were able to argue on Mark’s behalf that that wasn’t the case, it wasn’t evidence of a relapse. His last relapse had been four years prior to when we had put the application forward, and I’m very pleased to say that the insurer did listen to our reasoning and our arguments, and they did offer Mark life insurance and critical illness cover. So in Mark’s case what we did was decreasing life insurance of £164,000 with decreasing critical illness cover of £82,000 over the 34 years, and the reason we did that was to keep it within Mark’s budget, and it was felt that the life was probably more of a priority than the critical illness cover. And that came to a multi premium of around £21.
What is Multiple Sclerosis?
Multiple sclerosis is diagnosed when the myelin (coating) of the nerve fibres becomes damaged, and the body’s auto immune system believes that it is a foreign body that must be removed. Where the immune system attacks the myelin messages along the nerve system can become distorted, slowed down or lost completely. Eventually damage can be caused to the underlying nerve fibres, which can lead to permanent physical impairment.
There are three types of multiple sclerosis: relapsing remitting, secondary progressive and primary progressive MS. Relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis is diagnosed where symptoms flare up for a certain period of time, then disappear. Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis follows on from the first and is diagnosed by the development of permanent disability between relapses. Primary progressive multiple sclerosis is diagnosed where there are not flare ups of symptoms, but a permanent continued increase in the individuals severity of symptoms.
Also: Disseminated sclerosis, MS
Linked with: Chronic neurological disorders
Possible Effects on Lifestyle
Common problems experienced by individuals who have multiple sclerosis include:
- Cognitive difficulties
- Constipation
- Depression
- Extreme tiredness
- Fatigue
- Intention or postural tremors
- Loss of vision
- MS hug
- Muscle rigidity and/or involuntary spasms
- Reduced balance and coordination (ataxia)
- Reduced mobility
- Speech difficulties
- Swallowing difficulties
- Visual impairment
Medications and Treatments
- Azathioprine
- Baclofen (Lioresal, Lyflex)
- Botulinum Toxin Type A
- Botulinum Toxin Type B /Neurobloc
- Dantrolene sodium (Dantrium)
- Desmopressin acetate
- Dexamethasone sodium phosphate
- Diazepam
- Fingolimod hydrochloride (Gilenya)
- Gabapentin
- Glatiramer acetate (Copaxone)
- Interferon beta-1a (Avonex, Rebif)
- Interferon beta-1b (Betaferon, Extavia)
- Methylprednisolone sodium succinate (Solu-Medrone)
- Mitoxantrone
- Natalizumab (Tysabri)
- Oxybutynin hydrochloride
- Prednisolone
- Teriflunomide (Aubagio)
- Tizanidine (Zanaflex)
- Tolterodine tartrate
Further Reading and Research
- CuraVision – The ABCs – Multiple Sclerosis
- Life Insurance with Multiple Sclerosis
- www.mssociety.org.uk
- www.nhs.uk
- www.patient.co.uk
By clicking on the link(s) above you will be departing from the regulatory site of Cura Financial Services. Cura Financial Services is not responsible for the accuracy of the information contained within the linked site(s).
Common Questions
Yes we can. Some insurers are better at insuring people with multiple sclerosis than others, it sounds like you went to one that isn’t great at it. There are a number of reasons that you may have been declined life insurance e.g. the type of MS that you have, your medications, the time since the last relapse. Without knowing more, it is hard to say if you can have Life Insurance on the standard market, but don’t worry, we have access to specialist insurers and will be able to get you covered even if you have been refused life insurance before.
You cant. When you arrange Critical Illness Cover, you will find that Multiple Sclerosis is excluded from the claims set, potentially blindness too. It may seem unfair, but insurers will not cover you for conditions that you already have.
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Review by Simon on 17th July 2018
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Dr Kathryn Knowles Phd
Author
This page was written by Dr Kathryn Knowles Phd, an award-winning insurance adviser. To read more about Kathryn please see her bio here
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